Page 68 of Jewel of the Sea

They viewed the logs in silence, one after another, and found each more harrowing than the last despite the lack of new information presented. After the first few had played, Arkon curled a tentacle around Aymee’s waist and drew her close. She slipped her arms around him. His presence and quiet strength provided her only comfort.

Though many of the logs were mundane and uneventful, some lasting less than a minute, Captain Wright grew increasingly distressed with each passing day. His frustration became evident as his repeated declarations of having received no new orders or information from Central Command were delivered with progressively less emotion, while the unhealthy gleam in his eyes conversely intensified.

He detailed many of their normal operations, mentioning the base only had nineteen personnel apart from himself, as it had never entered full operation. His early note that they were well provisioned eventually turned into detailed weekly inventories of their stores. After the first few weeks, the Captain stopped shaving.

The formality of his introductions lapsed as the entries continued, but he maintained a calm demeanor through most of it, never seeming to communicate the scathing opinions belied by his expression.

Until the log he made on the one hundred and fourteenth day.

“Our provisions are lower than projected. Six soldiers violated standing orders, raided the stores and armory, and exited the facility during the night. Privates Thompson, Harris, Brown, and Everett—” Aymee started at the name, thinking of James and Maris, “—along with Corporal Jennings and Sergeant Brick.” His face contorted with rage, and he growled through his teeth. “These men swore an oath, and they have broken that oath by deserting their posts and stealing IDC property. I have sent word to the other bases that they are to be shot on sight, but I haven’t received any responses.”

Captain Wright dipped his head and dragged a hand over his haggard face. “We may be all that is left.”

Aymee and Arkon continued watching. Two weeks after the first desertion, Wright reported another — seven more men, gone during the night. Wright’s anger was far more pronounced, now, and he seemed to have aged years since the first log Aymee had selected. His cheeks were gaunt beneath his scraggly beard, his skin sickly-pale.

“I had sealed the armory and the storeroom,” he said in the log five days later, head bowed, and face lost in shadow, “to keep the men from helping themselves. Without order...none of this works. So, my second-in-command, the man I should have been able to trust until the end, led a group of them into both rooms, using the clearance granted by his rank, stocked them with food and weapons, and deserted.”

He sat in silence, his head shifting from side to side as though searching for something on the floor.

“The one man I thought I could trust. The one man I thought valued his honor and duty above everything else, the way a soldier should. Just another fucking rat.” He slammed his hand down; Aymee jumped at the loud bang. “If he shows his face here again, I will shoot him. I will unload every round from my service pistol into his fake smile, and then I will walk to the armory, reload my firearm, and empty it into him again.

“Only Lindholm and Warren are left. They’re the only two who are man enough to stick to their duty. Maybe the only two decent soldiers on this entire God-forsaken planet. And I can’t trust them. I don’t know why they haven’t left yet, but I know they’re just waiting for an opportunity.

“I left the armory and storeroom unlocked after the most recent desertion. I think...I need to watch the cameras. Hold this facility at all costs. We need to hold it.Ineed to hold it.”

Aymee’s finger hovered over the final log. She turned her head and stared at the remains on the floor. All he’d gone through had chipped away at his mind, leaving only blind rage and paranoia by the end. She knew what the last file would contain.

She opened it.

Captain Wright leaned on the console, one hand in his short-cropped hair and the other holding a familiar pistol. He was silent for a long while — the timer ticked away three minutes and twenty-two seconds before he spoke.

“Sergeant Lindholm and...and Private Warren. They have been executed under provision one-nineteen-charlie of the Interstellar Defense Coalition Judicial Code for attempted desertion of post. Provisions have run out. There are no supplies coming. No word. No word from anyone, anywhere.”

He shook his head, the gesture taking on an almost violent energy. “They were in the armory. Taking weapons against my orders. Arming themselves, maybe to...maybe to kill me? I detonated an incendiary device within the armory to prevent the stored weaponry from falling into enemy hands...tentacles…

“What thefuckare those things? They were on theNautilus, and they…”

Suddenly, he stood up. He was wearing the dark blue and silver uniform; it looked surprisingly clean and crisp, and he’d shaved for the first time in months.

“Captain James Wright, officer number one-five-three-bravo-six. This is my final report. I have held my post for as long as is possible. I have engaged all the security doors and will be shifting the facility into emergency power to keep it as intact as possible when IDC forces reclaim it.”

He shifted his pistol to his left hand and saluted with his right.

Lowering his hand, he stepped forward, back straight, and reached for something on the console.

The hologram flickered, and static distortions ran through it. The bright light shifted to the same dim red glow that had illuminated the place when Aymee and Arkon first arrived.

“Manual emergency standby power switch engaged,” the computer said. “Shifting to standby power in five seconds. Five...four...three…”

“Captain Wright, signing off.” Though his figure was shadowed, Aymee saw him lift the gun to his mouth.

“Two...one…”

There was a boom and a flash of light, burning the image of Captain Wright with his head snapping backward into Aymee’s mind, and then the hologram dissipated.

Chapter 14

Golden shafts of morning sunlight streamed through the water as Arkon swam away from the Broken Cavern, creating contrasting patches of light and shadow on the seafloor. His gaze drifted over rocks encrusted with sedentary creatures of a hundred different colors and beds of seagrass swaying hypnotically in the current. He tracked the movement of long, sleek, shimmering fish and scuttling, hard-shelled creatures. The sparkling surface overhead gave way to the endless, varied blue of the distant ocean on the fringes of his vision.

---