Sweet Cherry Pie

I.

I’d forever denied the existence of my human mother. Although my father contested me to this day, I was of the genuine belief that I was born straight from the womb of our Planet Thalassa. My soul was tethered to its great Abyss, longing to be cradled once again by that primordial blue, and the coolness of her touch.  

My whole life, I’d wanted to be a Diver like my dad and his father before him. Unlike the underwater welders of my class, their generations and the one preceding them were people of freedom and strength—true warriors who embraced oblivion instead of fleeing from it. 

My forefathers were given the chance to swim in Thalassa’s great Waters, away from the cramped ironworks that we called home. They sought out a life facing off with death outside of the Levels we lived in, trapped beneath the Seabed. 

Like most of his cohort, Gramps was long gone, and my dad’s mind had withered from the war’s leftover Thalassian Sickness—but the spirit of the Diver hopped from their souls to mine. With their ambitions faded, I was now wrought with the desire to have nothing between my skin and the endless Water above us. 

While exploring a mysterious Tower that appeared after the Telchine War, the last true Diving squad had missed their attendance signal for the last four days. From their Station, radio communications were impossible, but Bonded Neur-All implants still worked. 

Until now, the captain of Ten Squad, and my distant cousin Rose, had been sending daily check-ins to the Primes every day at the same time for the last month without absence or tardiness. It was presumed they had been annihilated by the Sickness. 

The last true Diving team was gone. 

I told myself not to mourn the lost, for they could not see my tears. 

In our home, leagues beneath the Seabed, the Primes gathered us Divers-in-training for a selection raffle. Our grandparents were dead and our parents were all deteriorating from the War and the rest of us were all waiting for the day we got our Thalassian Sickness diagnosis. All we knew was that the Tower had appeared once the War came to a halt, and the Sickness subsequently pressed its boot upon the throat of our population. If the Sickness came about after the Tower’s arrival, it stood to reason that it was the cause of our plight. After debating for a year on how to handle the situation, the Primes dictated it would be best to simply destroy the Tower. 

This was humanity’s last stand, and us rookies were all they had to cling onto for hope. By the pluck of one noble pair of fingers, we all teetered on the precipice of extinction. 

Who would now bear the honor of saving humanity from its demise?

“First called is Captain Mercy. Take your place to lead your squad.”

Atop the podium, along with the Primes, stood the preselected Captain of the savior squad—a young woman who was famous around the Levels for her expertise.  At eleven, she’d become one of the youngest Divers ever to earn the title, rising to the rank of Captain by the time she was fourteen. She’d led several welding units over the years, keeping the outer Hull of our home sealed so that it did not leak on the residents below. 

On Thalassa, we never pray for rain, and Captain Mercy was a sheer force of nature that prevented even the smallest droplets from breaking her seals. 

Most Divers only lived to twenty-five due to the nature of the underwater job, but at eight years my senior, Captain Mercy showed no signs of early demise. Some even say she’ll outlive even the Primes with their advanced anti-aging medicine. Like us, Mercy was no soldier, but she was humanity’s best chance at leading a backup mission. 

I looked around the crowd of cadets—a sprawling display of teenagers between the ages of puberty and adulthood. 

Out of the hundred or so acne-faced forms swaying on their heels, only five of us would be pulled from the raffle to serve alongside Captain Mercy. My palms grew sweaty in my anticipation. The Prime beside Mercy dipped his hand into a bowl filled with our names scribbled onto damp papers, fishing around for the first name to be drawn. 

“Jareth King.” 

Along with everyone else, I watched with a fierce gaze as the thirteen-year old trudged up the podium stairs. Even from my distance, I could see that her hands were shaking, and still she placed her hand over her heart in the Diver salute. 

“It’s only forever, no time at all!” Her shrill voice echoed in the metal chamber we’d gathered within causing some to groan, but I admired her bravado in the face of incoming demise. Despite our naivete, this youthful group of plucky Divers-in-training fully understood the weight of this mission. 

The Prime cleared his throat, pulling Jareth backwards by her elbow. “Moving on.” His fingers danced inside the massive glass bowl once again. “Lacy-Mae Bell.”

Oh, shit. The girl beside me inhaled sharply at the sound of her name. Her cheeks flushed a bright red, stark against her wheat-blonde hair that matched the fields back on Earth that I’d only seen in my Holo-Comm. 

“Hey,” I scooped up her hands as her breath began to quicken. “You’re strong, I’ve seen it.” Though my father was only blessed with one daughter, through Lacy-Mae I’d been blessed with something like a sister. I wanted to be proud of this moment for her, but she did not crave that same oblivion as I did. 

“I’m going.” Lacy-Mae squeezed my fingers once before letting go. Her mouth twitched as she attempted to force a smile before she quickly made her way to her place beside Jareth and Captain Mercy. 

The next name called was one I did not recognize. I used my Neur-All to search the class archives for any information on Nikita Costello while I simultaneously watched the raven-haired girl stomp towards the podium. In the corner of my field of vision, a small excerpt on sixteen-year old Nikita revealed that her stats were similar to mine in terms of welding ability and physical skills regarding breath holding and kicking power. 

A stab of jealousy ripped into my gut. Call my name. 

There were only two spots remaining on the squad, and one was reserved for a pre-drawn name to take up the slot of Lieutenant. My weight shifted onto the balls of my feet as my skin and muscles and tendons became hard as iron, holding me in place. 

Call my name.

The Prime seemed to slow in his movements as his fingers swiped one last slip of paper from the raffle bowl. His fingers moved in slow motion as they unfurled the name written inside. My heartbeat drummed loudly in my ear canals. 

“Cherry Sweet.”

My hands punched the air before I even knew they were moving. “Fuck yes!” My expletive echoed three times inside our chamber, kicking me back to reality where a hundred classmates of mine and my home’s governing power stared at me in disdain for my outburst. 

As I composed myself, I couldn’t stop the vibration of excitement possessing my body while I rejoined Lacy-Mae upon the stand.

This was my chance. Soon, I would be released from the walls of this underground cage and into the blissful freedom that could only be found in the Waters of Thalassa.  A buzzing hum took over my auditory senses, and I hardly registered anything following the sound of my name being called. 

From the Depths I came, and to the Below I will return. 

***

Page Squad coagulated at the helm of the sub, all of us intensely gripping one another in anticipation as our destination finally appeared in our collective field of vision. Through the thin strip of window at the front, the newly discovered Tower revealed itself all alone on the sandy Seabed, surrounded on two ends by matching cliffs that stretched in an upward crescent shape that looked like the curved beak of a giant squid’s maw.  

Despite its namesake, the Tower was not some man-made spyre poking out of the ground like the ancient buildings of Earth seen in my Holo-Comm. 

In fact, it was not made by humans at all. Certainly the beastly Telchines our mothers and grandfathers spent the chunk of a century eradicating could never construct such a thing, but who else was left but us on this barren ocean Planet? 

:So that’s it, huh?:

My Neur-All pinged, and I heard Lacy-Mae’s voice in my head, feeling her confusion briefly overriding the terror that had consumed her all day. We were all still getting used to being Bonded, and our neurons were firing at top speed as we deciphered our individual thoughts from the group’s. It was one thing training in rotating teams for years to get physically acclimated to each other. It was an entirely different thing having our minds work as one on a real mission. 

:I guess so: I rubbed the crown of Lace’s head, hugging her close. :Our folks never actually made it this far out because of the Telchines:

:But they’re all dead now: she whispered, like she was afraid speaking too loudly would rouse a monster hiding in the deep.

I playfully pushed her with my shoulder. :Of course they are:

But the Telchines weren’t truly gone. Not in a way that mattered to the children our parents left behind. Once the War had ended and the adults who had managed to survive returned home, each and every one of them had spread an illness that has since plagued our People. 

Be it the mind or the body, the Thalassian Sickness came for all on our Planet. 

At the very least, I wished my dad could be here with me now so he could witness the peace and calm Thalassa had to offer outside of his experience in the War. I couldn’t give him the memories lost to the Sickness as it ate away at his brain, but I could at least give him one last Dive as we embraced one another and returned with Mother. 

Ahead of us, the Tower’s form was ethereal, ambiguous in its pale color this deep below the Surface. Most of its body was a thin, string-like substance that came from the Seabed, and at the tip was an oval-shaped orb that appeared gelatinous to the touch. 

:It looks like an egg sack: I gagged, thinking about the wet scramble that we’d had for breakfast that morning. 

:Pay attention, Pages: 

Captain Mercy’s irritation was palpable. So was her caution. :Keep an eye out for disturbances in the Water:

For a generation and a half, our parents and grandparents fought against the Telchines, and all that was left behind in the aftermath was this mysterious Tower.

I felt a twist of remorse in the back of my stomach as I found myself wishing that the Universe would find a way to keep us on this mission indefinitely. 

Through the Neur-All, I swam through a symphony of my comrade’s fear and determination revolving around the mission. In concert with my team’s emotional ballet, I couldn’t help but wonder if Ten Squad had been blessed. All that was left for us back in the Levels was to rot away, mind, body and soul, living the rest of our days in Sickness-induced stupors. 

I’d give anything to avoid a fate like that. 

I had no future; my choices were to die in the Levels, or die out here in the womb of my mother. All I needed was to become one with the Abyss. My father was too far gone to save, and I’d already swallowed my resolve. 

The least I could do would be to try and find a cure for the rest of humanity who could have a future before I left it all behind. First, I would give it my all on this mission. 

As the sub connected with the docking station below the entrance, I squeezed my shaking hands shut and pretended the fear coursing through me came from my squad, and not myself. 

Someone jabbed me in the ribs with an elbow, and I glared at Jareth snickering beside me. :Oi, you little runt: 

:At least I’m not the one about to piss myself:  Jareth stuck her tongue out at me, but Captain Mercy’s turnaround glare was enough to silence the both of us. 

“Get your Skinsuits on, Pages.” Captain Mercy stood from her seat, marching towards the back end of the sub. “We have to swim to the front door.”

In my peripherals, and for the first time, I saw my squadmates fully undressed. My cheeks flushed as I was suddenly imbued not only with my own self consciousness at my uncovered body, but everyone else’s queasiness as well. 

I pouted as I donned my Diver uniform. Despite my love for my job, I loathed the lime green color of the Skinsuit. My dad had so kindly named me for my obnoxious hair color, and as I yanked on my wetsuit, I felt like a walking upside down strawberry: a bright red top and neon green base. 

But it’s your eyes that are special, my sweet Cherry pie. My dad would say as he brushed my hair before bedtime, simultaneously humming an old tune from our ancestral Planet. They’re not the blue of Thalassa’s Water. No, no. I think they match the blue of the Earth’s crystalline Sky. ‘Looks so good make a grown man cry. Sweet Cherry pie.’

I couldn’t see her, but I felt Nikita’s annoyance flickering into my mind. :Could you stop reminiscing over there and focus? We have a mission to accomplish here:

Unable to help myself, I whirled around to look Nikita in the eyes as I hurled my own ire towards her. :No way. I thought we were here on some vacation:

:Pages! Eyes front: Captain Mercy’s command through the Neur-All hushed the entire group, and we finished our preparations in intimidated silence.

The sound of tapping feet yanked me out of the fog of teenage shame, and I looked up at the familiar face of my appointed Lieutenant, Felicity Zephyr. She’d yet to slip on her Skinsuit, and the Thalassa-blue lightning bolt tattoo etched between her breasts was vivid underneath the blinking sub lights. 

:What?: My old classmate’s voice chimed in my head. :Nothin’ you haven’t seen before, Sweet girl:

Recovering from my embarrassment, I hauled my suit up my arms and zipped up my back. :You’re a perv:

Captain Mercy loomed like a golden shadow behind Felicity. “Skinsuit on, Lieutenant. Your bare ass is unnecessary for this next part.”

Felicity sulked. :You’re no fun, Cap’n:

Once we were all in order, we entered the Decompression room at the sub’s rear end, and the Door to Thalassa was opened. 

The Station itself was a giant square space, connected to part of the gigantic crescent-shaped cliffs jutting from the ground. It looked off, as if it had been pulled from its axis, but it was intact and showed no obvious signs of destruction. 

Several dozen feet above us was the entrance to the Station; a six by six foot square of Water, serving as part of its ‘floor’. Between it and our Squad, was the infinite blue of Thalassa. 

Our tiny Planet was special. The Waters surrounding me did not have nearly the same crushing gravitational pressures as the Cups of Earth. 

Here, a thousand feet below the shallow Surface, I pretended our Skinsuits provided our bodies with the same level of protection as our space-suited Brothers that explored the Stars.

Ignoring our isolation, I extended my wrapped hand in front of me, letting the frozen Water reach my bones and numb me. I wondered how long it would take for the cold to stop my heart from beating; I wondered how long it would take before I decomposed if I were to stay right here. 

There was a tether wrapped around my waist that connected me to the sub in case the Planet stole me into the Abyss, but the pull of Thalassa had me twitterpated nonetheless. I contemplated unhooking myself, letting the Planet take me away. 

:You going to fuck the Water too, Cherry, or do you plan on bringing your ass up here with the rest of us?:

I groaned inwardly. There was no longer such a thing as privacy in this place.  

:Don’t mind me, Cap’n: I replied, kicking my motor-fins until I reached the Station entrance where Captain Mercy and the rest of Page Squad treaded Water. :The heart wants what the heart wants:

I began my final ascent towards the Station, but movement in my peripheral vision caught my attention. Using the connection of my Neur-All to my mask, I zoomed in at the wiggling spot a hundred feet perpendicular to me. 

:Ascend, Cherry: Mercy barked in my head. :That’s an order:

I ignored her, squinting as if that would verify that what I saw was real. At first I thought it was a piece of an underwater parachute, but as the object grew closer and larger in my field of view I saw that there were two distinct bodies racing through the Water. 

:Bogies in the Water!: 

I sounded the alarm to all of my Squadmates, and the blue surrounding me filled with white bubbles as they crashed back in with me. For a second time, I felt the fresh chill of Thalassa despite not having to leave it in the first place. 

Captain Mercy handed me a tether, connecting myself, her and Felicity to the floor of the Station. By now, the bogies were close enough to clearly see. Mercy recognized one of them first, and we all experienced that warmth that blooms in your chest when you see the person you love after time apart. 

My cousin Rose was in the midst of a bloody battle with a monster we’d thought had been wiped out by our own families. The Telchine was a bulbous thing, round from nostril to tail end, save for its webbed finds and disgusting three-rowed jaw.  It snapped its teeth at Rose, slamming its foot-long spears into her gut. Blood bloomed all around her upon its release, but adrenaline allowed her to kick away from the beast while it thrashed in a frenzy in the now-empty space Rose had been taking up. 

That was our cue. 

Rose had finally noticed our congregation and was kicking her weakening legs towards us, while Felicity shot off a spare tether to further distract the Telchine. It bit at the tether, tangling the nylon in its teeth. While it was busy failing at dental hygiene, Captain Mercy used her arm-band to pop off three subsequent razor-bullets at the Telchine. She managed to bury two blades in the beast’s hide, scaring it enough to shoo it back into the deep for now. 

Rose barely managed to catch up to us. Felicity and I wrapped our arms around her torso, hauling her into the Station’s entrance as a river of her blood trailed behind us. 

Jareth and Lacy-Mae tugged at our soaked and heavy bodies, pulling the three of us over onto the rubber grating that served as our new floor’s perimeter. 

At once, our tethers detached from our waists, returning to the sub, which would pilot itself back to the Levels. At that moment, we were collectively forced to come to terms with the sobering fact that we were truly on our own in this place. 

Captain Mercy gulped the air beside me when she finally ascended from the Water, regaining her composure long before any of us. She stumbled over to Rose and cupped her face in her hands. 

“What the hell happened here, Rosie?”

Rose heaved in Mercy’s arms, mumbling something in between shallow breaths.

It took all her might to muster three words. 

“They’re all dead.”

II.

The cause of death was evident: transverse abdominal lacerations extending to the heart. 

Rose died within seconds of speaking her final words, bleeding out in Mercy’s lap. After several minutes of harrowing silence, the captain wanted to get her inside and into a soft bed, so it was time to investigate the hollow shell of the Station. 

No one wanted to go in first. Luckily, being Captain forced Mercy into the position to volunteer herself, and she yanked open the wrought titanium door with two thrusts of her upper body. The door screamed as it peeled open, sending a sickening chill into my gut. 

:Scared of the dark?: Jareth teased from her perch at the surveillance desk. 

I stuck my tongue out at her from across the room. :Just what’s in it,
you big baby:

:You’re just jealous of my skills: She relayed as her fingers danced across the keypad. 

Entering the hall, Felicity followed closeby with Rose cradled in her arms, and Nikita hurriedly shuffled inside, keeping close to the Lieutenant. 

Not wanting to be the last, I hopped in front of Lacy-Mae, who left the door open a crack, her Neur-All betraying her fear of being locked inside. I didn’t blame her. 

 Here, my shoulders brushed against the smooth interior of the entryway, and I was all too aware of my own claustrophobia mixing with the trepidation of my squad. The hallways in the Levels were nearly this narrow. Outside, in the Water, our world was endless. There were no Walls or Levels keeping us imprisoned in one metal cage to the next like on the inside.

With each step forward, I was reminded of the rot that addled my father’s brain in those same terribly thin halls—the very rot that would eventually eat away at me in due time. I fought the urge to spin on my heels and run back out into the entry room. I buried the sensation of longing that drew me to Thalassa, to freedom and peace. 

I nervously reached back for Lacy-Mae’s hand, feeling the boiling anxiety inside me lower to a simmer as she rubbed her thumb on the back of mine. 

We were doused in darkness until we turned the corner, coming into a wide-open main room with metal tables and cushioned seats sprawled all around. Personal items like jackets and shoes were strewn about, appearing as if they’d been shrugged off after a day's work and no one had the care to put them back in their cubbies. 

Nikita and Lacy-Mae continued leftwards through the Station, alerting us of the location of the kitchen and storage area as they foraged for snacks. Captain Mercy and Felicity went right, lying Rose down in a bunk while also sending information about the dormitories and showers on their side. I stayed in the main room, slowly investigating the remnants of life left behind by Ten Squad. 

There were a few food wrappings still crumpled on the center table, a half-emptied glass of sparkling water—ew, I took my Water freezing and salty or not at all—and a wrinkled blanket comfortably tossed across the backside of the couch. 

Instead of salt like the entry room, it smelled of musk and almonds and a hint of burnt tobacco. I smiled. How did the Tens manage that? The Primes were such prudes when it came to illegal hydro-farms. Smuggling in such cramped quarters was difficult even for pros. 

:Focus, Cherry: Came the captain’s voice in my head. 

I rolled my eyes. :What should I be looking for?:

:Clues. Bodies. A waste bin:

The big three, as they say.

:Cadet, respond:

:Yes Cap’n!: 

I playfully clicked my heels together before gathering up the trash, neatly folding the blanket and placing it at the end of the couch. I tidied up a few other small pieces of evidence of human life, pondering what took place here in the four days since the Tens’ last check-in. 

From the looks of things, they were simply going about their lives as usual, and then vanished into thin air.

After a scrupulous search of the Station had been completed and no signs of any other Tens were found, the captain gathered us in the entry room for a de-briefing. We gathered around the surveillance screens in one corner, which at the moment were all turned off. 

“I had Jareth take a look at these monitors.” The captain jammed her thumb in the direction of our spritely comrade making herself at home in the tech. “Tell them.”

Jareth did a playfully dramatic spin upon her stool. “I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to the screens above me.”

Nikita cleared her throat and crossed her arms. “They’re off.”

“One point awarded to Nikita for that genius analysis.” Jareth waved her finger at Nikita like she was granting a wish, then dragged it back towards the monitors. “But why are they off? This Station runs off hydraulic power. Nothing in this room should ever turn off without outside interference.”

“Meaning?” asked Lacy-Mae.

Jareth’s smile dropped off. “One of the Tens, likely Captain Rose, shut off the surveillance cameras. To be more specific, they were hoping to destroy the data stored on it so that whatever they found here wouldn’t be sent to the Levels at their four week check-in.”

“Which was four days ago.” Captain Mercy flipped a switch on the back end of the screens, powering them back on. A whining tune sang as the monitors hummed back to life, filling in the void that came with our collective shock and confusion. 

“Why would they do that?” I spouted. 

Jareth fidgeted with the keys on her keyboard, hearing my thoughts because of the Neur-All. “Wouldn’t we all like to know.” Her itching ambition seeped into the rest of us, and we all began anxiously awaiting the bright red recording dot in the corner of the main hub. 

“Supposedly,” said the captain, “there are four cameras on each corner of the base of this Station, which theoretically saved onto drives that were wiped because of the power loss prior to our arrival. The fifth screen here is sonar only, and the range is abysmal according to the log notes. The tech here is archaic at best. It wouldn’t be hard to lose data even on accident.”

Nikita scoffed, gesturing at the sputtering machines. “You’d think the Primes would put more effort into their exploratory efforts.”

I laughed dryly, “It’s not like the Colonists left us much in terms of help once the First Ones settled here, and the War took most of our resources.” A flash of my sickly father interrupted my thoughts, but I shoved it away. “Besides, this is the best the Primes have to offer while their brightest minds focus on curing a disease that has no chance of being cured.”

The captain’s jaw flexed, and I sensed a bit of irritation slipping through her Neur-All. “Watch it, cadet. Why don’t we focus on the task at hand, yes?”

“Yes, captain,” I said through a clenched jaw. I wasn’t in the mood for arguing with my entire squad over something all of us were suffering over one way or another. 

The screens had returned to life, revealing a sickly lime green saturation behind the glass. Jareth used a round control pad to scroll through a matrix of data I had no intention of learning how to decipher, while everyone else squeezed in to try and read alongside her. Based on the concurrent weariness sneaking to my Neur-All, I knew they understood as little as I did. 

I reach through Lacy-Mae and Nikita, tapping Jareth on the shoulder. “Oi, you find out what happened down here in all that mess?”

:Not will all of you breathing down my neck like that:

At the same time, Jareth said out loud, “There.” She placed her small index finger in the center of the leftmost screen. “Most of the early notes are basic things like descriptions of the first week of setting up shop in the Station. Then there’s almost two entire weeks’ worth of information on the topography of the area, and theories about the Tower being organic material.”

A spook electrified our Boneded Neur-Alls, and the room became eerily quiet. We didn’t know what to do with this much reciprocal dread. 

Organic as in…alive? I clutched at my stomach, suddenly nauseous. 

Captain Mercy slid in between everyone, steadying Jareth by placing her hands on her shoulders. :Easy, Pages. Take a breath, all of you:

She then took over reading from the prompters, speaking as if she were Captain Rose. “‘As we voyage into this fourth week of the mission, we have finally decided to obey orders and explore the Tower. All this time, we’ve quietly avoided it. I think it was because of the Cliffs. Vix’s named them The Titan’s Maw, which is apt. 

They say it looks like a freaky ass mouth and don’t wanna get close in case it has bad breath.’” The captain disclosed the hint of a smile as she read her partner’s notes, and we all felt a heat spread from our bellies as we shared her nostalgia. 

“‘I suppose we’ve all been too afraid after that. Didn’t want to risk bad dreams unsettling the squad. To be honest, it was me who was most afraid. If the Tower is what’s causing the Sickness, what will become of my squad if we get too close? But humanity is waiting on us. Today we will swim out to the Tower and see what it has to offer. May our journey be blessed.’ ”

“That’s the last written log,” said Jareth. “Dated—you guessed it—four days ago.”

I shook my head. “But Rose was out in the Waters today. What else happened in the days between this log and her nearly dying from a ‘supposed to be extinct’ monster?”

“Why don’t we ask her?” Nikita’s Neur-All unleashed her exasperation, blending with my own nettle. “Can’t we cut out her Neur-All and plug it into the computer?”

Captain Mercy spun on Nikita. “You will not touch her brain. That’s an order.”

Nikita said nothing after that, but we could all feel her unease. None of us were comfortable with the given situation. The unknowns were many, and the facts were muddled in the mind of a deceased captain in the dorms. 

:Stop it, all of you. Your emotions are overloading me, and there's something else here: Jareth’s voice cut through the fog. She scrolled down on the center screen, speed reading through another section of log notes. :These are from this morning! Right before we arrived:

We knew she’d finished reading when a dam broke and we all felt her fear as if it were a tangle of needles brushing against our chests. Through Jareth, we read and re-read Rose’s final journal entry six times over. 

‘ If you are reading this, I pity you, for I tried to bury this in case someone else was sent looking. The People back home cannot know, but your sub is gone and you are all alone out here, so I will tell you the truth: from the moment we arrived on this Planet, we were never alone. The beasts we call Telchines ravaged our People, erasing generations from memory. But what are these monsters? Why do they attack us without thought or motive? ’

“Is she talking about the War?” I asked. 

Before he’d lost his mind, my dad had told me a story from that time. He said the Divers fought with artillery and protective shields, too scared to face a naked fish on their own.  Humans would never tolerate being beneath anything on the universal food chain, even if it meant throwing hundreds of our parents and grandparents to their doom for the greater good.

Nikita shushed me, but her eyes remained glued to the green screens. I could sense her panic bubbling up underneath a layer of forced bravado, and I chose to say nothing instead of spitting something back at her. 

‘ Upon our investigations of the Tower, it was confirmed this was no human-made monument. In fact, it was never made in the first place. It’s always been here. It’s a part of Thalassa itself. Always watching as we fade away in history from the Sickness it produces. My entire squad is dead for this information. The concentration of toxicity in the Waters here claimed their lives within weeks. Now, I seek only retribution. If I fail, Humanity is on their own.’

I swallowed, insomuch as I attempted to gulp the dry mucus clogging my throat. 

Jareth summarized the rest of the entry, “Rose believed that the Tower is some kind of egg sack that happens to be poisonous to us, and the Telchines are protective over it, hence the hostility. I imagine the Telchine that was in the Water earlier was the one that took out her squad and she was going on one last kill run before she died, too.”

“Do you think she was right? About the Tower being some kind of poisonous egg sack?” Jareth answered me with silence. Understandable. She didn’t know any more than I did. 

:One way to find out: Captain Mercy spun around, heading for the equipment wall across the room. :Grab a weapon, and let’s go destroy it:

***

Night had fallen on our dwarven Planet. Our neon Skinsuits were subdued underneath the indigo waves as we fanned out in a V formation, with Mercy taking point. The lines of our tethers reminded me of a bridge’s construction—something I’d only ever seen in photos. Felicity swam parallel with me, while Nikita and Lacy-Mae took up the rear. Jareth remained at the surveillance desk, monitoring the revived cameras for the rogue Telchine that still hunted us in the shadows. 

:Jareth:

:Yes, Captain?:

:Any sign of the bogie?:

:All clear, Captain:

Though we’d only just met, and she hadn’t said it aloud, we all knew she was happy to babysit the glass green screens from safety. I didn’t blame her, but I was sure she could feel a sliver of my taunting seeping through the Neur-All. I wanted to shout in my Diving mask—what a chance she was missing! 

I refocused my attention to the Depths. One hundred feet below us was the Tower, which was radiating a soft blue bioluminescent glow. The two claw-like cliffs that guarded it almost looked to be moving in the disorienting lighting. 

Despite the Tower’s glimmering beauty, a sickly heat bubbled in my gut. :I see where the egg theory came from: 

Nikita’s annoyance was sandwiched between layers of fear. :Maybe it’s a plant, and you’re all being paranoid:

Captain Mercy sent a controlled wave of order through the Neur-All, calming the four of us at once using our own tech. I couldn’t believe the level of precision she held over the Bond. :Cadets, use some situational awareness, please:

We’d reached the Tower, the five of us hovering mere feet away from the glowing blue formation. As we kicked our legs and stirred up soot from the Seabed, we all looked at the Tower that extended at least fifty feet above us in height. Up close, the Tower was a smooth, rubbery looking material, closely resembling the silicone that made up the tubes that we used to transport water around the entirety of the Levels. 

:Cherry and Nikita: called the captain, :Take up defensive positions at ten and two, in case the Telchine sneaks up on us:

:Yes, Captain!: we replied in unison, taking up our positions about a dozen feet above the rest of our squad. 

Captain Mercy, Felicity, and Lacy-Mae continued to investigate the Tower itself, looking for any other clues as to its true nature before its inevitable destruction. Jareth continued to report on any disturbances on the radar, keeping us apprised of any threats in the area. 

Surrounded by the midnight Waters, I fell into a comfortable trance. My section of survey hypnotized me with a pulsating black and blue that overtook my field of vision, almost wiping my mind of the knowledge that we were still in danger out here. 

:Cherry, I can feel your daydreaming. Could you at least pretend to pay attention?: The sound of Nikita’s voice in my head was like an electric shock. :Some of us want to get this mission over with and go back home:

In my aggravation, I missed an alert that Jareth was trying to send our way. Since she was not within a hundred feet of any of us, our Neur-All Bond had to call in similar to the machines our Ancestors used back on Earth. All I caught was the red alert bubble that appeared in my peripherals before it winked out. 

Captain Mercy unsheathed a pressure gun from the holster on her leg, pointing it at the fattest part of the Tower’s tip. Her goal wasn’t to destroy the Tower yet, but to see what would happen if it was stimulated.  

:Captain! The Tower isn’t an organism, it’s an organ!: Jareth’s spooked voice flew into our heads from her location in the Station. Her shriek was punctuated by the blast of Mercy’s gun, and I felt the shockwave hit me a half-second after its detonation. 

All that followed was chaos. 

As Mercy’s weapon came into contact with the Tower like a ball of air on rubber, she was propelled backwards several feet, while the Seabed beneath us began to vibrate. The Planet then revealed a giant circle of sharp teeth at least two hundred feet in diameter that rose from below. 

Then, the unblemished Tower abruptly sank into the Abyss as the ground itself swallowed Lacy-Mae and Felicity whole. 

III.

When I was four, my father told me a ridiculous story. 

He was a man of many tall tales and melodic songs and other such joyous things. He’d sit me on his bony knees, his huge palm against my back as he chauffeured me through another tale. 

“A man visited a cemetery on a dark, rainy evening.” My father had opened this particular story by dimming the lamplight beside the recliner, bringing the setting directly to me. “A cemetery, by the way, my sweet Cherry, was a place on Earth where they buried the bones of their dead en masse.”

I remember crying out, holding my hands to my mouth, aghast. “No way, daddy!”

“Yes way, baby!” My father had a talent for mimicking me in falsetto. Quickly, he continued. “Anyway, listen. Listen! The cemetery was outside of town, deep in the woods where it was quiet. This man had come to check on the grave they were digging for his brother. He wanted to see how things were coming along.”

My dad shook me by my shoulders, jarring me. “But he slipped! He fell right into that grave which had been dug so, so deep. In fact, it was over ten feet deep, and the rain fell so heavily that the walls had become slick like velvet.”

My eyes had become glued to my father’s face in the shadows. His mischievous blue eyes never left mine, mesmerizing me with their charm. 

“What happened next?”

“The man was desperate. He dug his fingers and toes into the muddy walls, pulling and yanking with all his might. But the rain poured and poured. And poured.” My father lowered his voice, coaxing me in. 

“Who knows how much time passed in that deep, deep grave with the rain still raining and the sky never turning to light and the walls never drying up. Who knows how long he struggled to get out before he capitulated.”

“What’s ‘ka-bitch hated’?”

“Bless you. As I was saying, the man grew quiet after some time. He fell still in the darkest corner of the grave, clutching his knees to his chest and shivering without so much as a whimper escaping his lips. 

“Many days passed. Years, maybe. Yet, the man did not move and the rain did not cease and the walls remained ever-slicked. Then, on some other random dark and rainy day, another man approached the grave and slipped and fell inside.”

“Oh no!”

“Oh yes! And this second man was desperate, too. He was screaming and clawing and fighting against the walls but he was stuck just as well. The second man was about to give up, but he heard a croaking noise from behind him speak with a voice that sent shivers down his spine. ‘You’ll never get out of here’. This caused the second man such a fright that he managed to scramble up the walls of the grave out of sheer fear, escaping with his life.”

At the time, my dad concluded the story with his usual guttural laughter, amused with his creativity and the dumbfounded look on my face. I never grasped the greater meaning behind any of his tall tales. His crow’s feet had long stretched to his temples, spreading more with each smile that plastered itself on the taupe canvas of his cheeks. 

Given the advancement of his Sickness these days, he couldn’t remember the day before last, let alone such an outlandish story from my childhood. 

I didn’t understand why this was what I was thinking about as the captain and Nikita hauled me over the rubbery boundary of the Station’s entrance. After the Planet had swallowed our lieutenant and my dear sweet Lacy-Mae, my mind had gone blank as if to protect itself from the horror of the moment. Once I was on solid ground, I rolled away, vomiting up half my body’s weight in hot, sticky bile. 

Lacy-Mae is dead. Gone. Never coming back.

More than that, Jareth’s last words before the attack echoed in my Neur-All. The Tower wasn’t its own organism, but part of one. Though, I could hardly focus on that. 

Because we were all Bonded, I experienced their deaths as if they were my own. 

Felicity’s surprise, Lacy-Mae’s regret. Their collective pain. 

On and on they replayed in my head, hijacking my own sense of self. My ears rang. My vision tunneled, and the voices of Nikita and Jareth came to me as muffled shouts. More Water escaped my guts, spreading around my shaking hands.

My affair with oblivion had been constructed from ignorance. I never knew how violent it would be—how sudden and eternal the pain was in its wake. I never knew how much I didn’t want to die, or how much I truly wanted to climb out of this place and live.

My breath was ragged in my chest. I couldn’t speak, even through my Neur-All. My entire body rocked with the movement of my uncontrollable sniggering. Wasn’t this what we came here for? To sacrifice ourselves for the greater good of our People? To die?

“Get ahold of yourself,” Nikita snapped from above me, but her Neur-All revealed her own dejection. She couldn’t believe what she’d just witnessed either. Her dark hair had fallen from its ponytail, shrouding her tears from us. 

My head jerked up, stating matter-of-factly, “I always wanted to die while out in the Water, but I never thought—” My words fell out of my mouth with a great heat. Grief and shock bubbled inside my Neur-All, coalescing into a mound of terror that gripped my heart. “I never thought it would feel like that.”

“Are you stupid?” Nikita swung at me, reflexively striking my face with the back of her hand. “What person in their right mind is ready to die at a moment’s notice?”

Stunned by Nikita’s outburst, I was frozen in place while holding my hand to my cheek. Anger surged through me, but it was not my own. I couldn’t tell where my sorrow ended and someone else’s fright began. Even the captain stared blankly at the ground, numbly watching the droplets of water slip down her nose and destroy themselves via gravity. 

Did Thalassa lament over her lost Water the same way we mourned for our dead?

My mouth drooped and a tightness seized my throat. “What do we do now?”

“You’re an idiot, Cherry.” Jareth padded up to the three of us, wiping tears from her own puffy red eyes. Looking at her, I realized the nausea flipping my stomach was coming from her residual rage. Her nostrils flared while she berated me.  “We have to destroy the monster that killed our family and our friends.”

“Nowhere in those orders did it say to die as a part of that mission.” Mercy’s voice was stern, and filled with heartache as she shakily addressed me—or was that my own shame swelling in my chest?. “We are a part of humanity too, Cherry. We are meant to be saved. We are also meant to live.”

My breath flew from my lungs, and a humorless laugh escaped me. 

I see, I thought. I was the first man to fall in the grave, foolishly resigned to nothingness without even hoping to find another way out of it. 

“You’re right. I’m an idiot.” I took hold of Nikita’s forearms as we hoisted each other to our feet. “But I’m an idiot who’s gonna help save Humanity.”

***

Before Page Squad took up its final mission, we were granted one final hour to ourselves. Captain Mercy had been honest, explaining to Nikita, Jareth and I that she could not promise our return home. The stakes had been drastically raised in the last hours. 

She’d simply commanded, “Spend your time as you wish.” She then left us, skulking back to the dorms so she could hold the hand of her late love. 

Jareth fixated on digging further into the surveillance logs, while Nikita turned on every showerhead in the bathroom to enjoy a steaming hot sauna. Though I was sitting in the entry room listening to Jareth typing on her keyboard, Nikita’s pleasure spilled into my Neur-All as she listened to her own curated playlist on the dorm speakers. I eased into it, allowing it to momentarily shove away the hurt that lingered in my heart. 

I nestled into my spot next to the entrance to Thalassa, lying face-up with my hands clasped above my navel. I’d considered calling my father via the Neur-All’s long distance option, but I couldn’t bear to hear the sound of his voice right now. What if he was lucid and knew I was selected for this mission? He’d be so worried, so sad that I was in such danger. 

Instead, I mulled over everything that had happened until now. The Tower’s true nature. The Telchine’s continued, parasitic existence. Losing Lacy-Mae and Felicity. Things were not as I had always dreamed being a Diver would be. There was no glory to be found here, no greater purpose in throwing away my life to enter an oblivion I’d never even fully understood. 

Too jittery to remain still any longer, I decided to get up and join Jareth at her desk. 

“Hey,” I murmured, pulling up a stool beside her. “There’s been something on my mind since the last Dive that I wanted to ask you about.”

Jareth ceased her typing, but she did not take her eyes off the screens. “What?” Even the single syllable caused her voice to break, and I could feel the effort it took her to fight the hot tears in her eyes. 

I put my hand on top of hers, hoping that she could sense my support. “When the captain was about to fire her shot at the Tower, you were trying to send us an alert.”

“A warning.”

Jareth’s voice was even, unforced, but her Neur-All confessed sickening fear. :Rose hid her detailed notes in files labeled as ‘chore lists’. She really was trying to hide the truth from the People:

“What truth?” I asked aloud. 

Jareth had gone mute. :She didn’t know for sure, but she had theories. The Tower is an egg sack, or a native plant, or perhaps even another animal not unlike a Telchine: 

My heartbeat increased with hers. I was at war not only with my trepidation, but Jareth’s dread. Even the captain and Nikita’s Neur-Alls fluttered with curious activity as they listened in. 

“You called it an organ.”

I couldn’t help but think of something I’d watched as a kid as we anxiously awaited our captain’s next move. It was a film about marine life on Earth. I must have been five or six when I watched the documentary, and much like the prey on screen, I was hooked. Thousands of feet below the Surface of the Sea, in a place entrenched in darkness, there lay in waiting a creature with a misshapen body. Its jaws were half of itself, and out of its head came a shining lure. 

Back then, were it not for the Station’s flashlights illuminating the underwater landscape for viewers to witness the moment, I’d never be thinking of it now. The creature, with a lure growing from its own skin, entranced its prey right into its own maw. The Planet of Thalassa reminded me of this creature; the Seabed was like its Mouth, and the Water was its body.

What if, I thought, the Telchines are like the prey in the old movies, lured by the Planet in order to sustain it? 

Jareth had begun to cry. :You’ve figured it out, right, Cherry?: She was now looking at me, pitiful in her expression. 

We were both startled by a loud noise from behind us, and we were surprised to see Captain Mercy and Nikita already running to the Skinsuits on the wall. 

“Get dressed, Cherry!” The captain’s voice boomed in the silence. “We will discuss more on the way.”

“What are we doing, Captain?”

Captain Mercy spun on her heels as she zipped up her suit. “Making dinner.”

***

The hour had not yet passed, but it was time for one last Dive. 

The theory was outlandish, but it was all we had. If the Planet was a living organism, then it would stand to reason it would need something to consume in order to survive. If it didn’t eat, it couldn’t survive. If it began to starve, soon it would die. Things decay and rot when they’re dead. Which can lead to things like increased toxicity in the Water. 

Thus, Thalassian Sickness. 

I used Rose’s theory about the Telchines existing as part of a symbiotic relationship to connect the dots. 

The Tower was a lure—a smaller part of a greater, more powerful whole. 

With this knowledge, I surmised that the Planet survived off of the Telchines that populated its Body of Water. Since our parents and grandparents had spent the last century killing off the Telchines, the Planet had started to die off. 

Considering Rose’s point about the increased toxicity levels in this area so close to the Tower, it could explain the sudden appearance of the Sickness after the War had ended. The Planet’s own decay was the most likely cause of our dwindling numbers, but that also meant that things could be improved. 

Our mission was simple. The Planet needed to be fed, and she then would not decay. If she did not decay, our People would not suffer and die from the Sickness. That was our hope, anyway, as the captain, Nikita and I descended for the last time upon the Tower’s triple spheres. 

Captain Mercy pinged the Station. :Jareth, any sign of the Telchine?: 

:Not yet, stand by: 

I chimed in. :How’s the video broadcast going?:

I could hear Jareth’s smile in my Neur-All. :I’ve remotely hacked into any ‘on’ screen in the Levels. Unless someone’s asleep, they’re seeing what we saw along with the captain’s overlaid speech:

:Atta girl: replied the captain. :I bet all the veterans will be so glad to find out they’re going to have to start breeding more Telchines in order to save their People:

I laughed into my oxygen mouthpiece. :Damn, Cap’n. That’s dark:

:Maybe they’ll come up with cute names for them: Nikita chirped. 

:Bogie incoming:

:That’s my cue: Captain Mercy swam away from Nikita and I. 

The captain had now become the lure, branching away from the Mouth of Thalassa like an extension of the Tower in order to attract her victim. :Remember to call Cherry and Nikita’s tethers back once I’m in position, Jareth: 

I unsheathed a serrated knife from a holster on my leg. Nikita brandished her welding tool, and we braced ourselves for the onslaught. Our duty was to damage the Telchine enough to get it to Mercy so she could slam their bodies into the Tower and feed the Planet. 

That’s all, I told myself. Slice up the monster, and get yanked away. I had an entirely new resolve. I was going to go home and deliver the good news directly to my dad. It was so easy to picture, his warm smile, his bright Thalassa blue eyes. We’d sing and dance together, and I would find a new job as a Telchine farmer in the wake of discovering his cure. 

The Telchine appeared in my field of vision, quickly growing as it rapidly approached our group. Its jaws gnawed on nothing, already preparing to take out its next victim. I wondered what the Telchines used to eat before we came here. I’d thought the Planet functionally provided them with nutrients, or were we just that enticing?

Not that it mattered. We would tame these bulbous beasts in due time. For now, this one was set to die as part of our grand scheme. 

In order to draw the Telchine’s attention to us first, Nikita and I flashed our headlights at random, hoping to stir its interest while disorienting it at the same time. Our method proved of use, and the monster wriggled in a frenzy upon its approach—I made a mental note to thank the veterans back home for discovering these tactics in the first place when we got back. 

My breath quickened as it ate up several feet at a time as it used its slimy body to its benefit. I was newly aware of the delicate nature of my own life, and as I brandished my knife towards my target, I felt underprepared to defend it. 

:Just swing your weapon, Cherry: Nikita said as she arched her weapon above her head. :My mom always said ‘just keep swinging’:

The assault began with silence echoed by screams. 

The Telchine dipped its head below Nikita, puncturing her calf with its teeth as it hauled her over its backside, trying to swallow her in one bite. Bubbles burst from her mask as she howled in pain as her voice begging for help took over my Neur-All. I grit my teeth and kicked myself forward, bringing my arm down with a slowed force thanks to the Water’s resistance. I punctured the Telchine, but only half-way. 

Angered by my attack, the Telchine whipped its head side to side, allowing Nikita to slide her wounded leg off his teeth and kick away with her working limb. Captain Mercy shouted orders into the Neur-All, instructing Jareth to pull Nikita back by her tether. 

Using the opportunity of distraction, I veered myself away from the Telchine’s jaws, stabbing at its stomach and drawing my knife through its gelatinous skin in order to inflict as much damage as possible. The beast responded in kind, bending almost ninety degrees at its navel in order to reach me, but my tether managed to keep it at bay for a moment. 

At the last second, the Telchine bent the opposite way, trying to latch onto Nikita before she was out of reach. I quickly repeated my stab-and-tear motion while the animal was busy thrashing under our hands, uncertain as to which of us it should eliminate first. My tether then ripped in its teeth, disconnecting me from the Station within seconds. 

The wind was abruptly knocked out of me while I was contemplating my next move. Blood blossomed all around me, pulsing like thunderclouds filled with red rain. 

What just happened?

A flash of green appeared in my peripherals, and I watched as Captain Mercy attacked the Telchine from beneath. She swung her own serrated knife into the belly of the monster, and chunks of its viscera and skin filled the Water around us. 

As I looked down, I understood why she’d come to my aid. 

Protruding from my sternum, were two razor-sharp teeth connected to the jaws of a beast whose life dwindled from its beady black eyes. I freely dangled above its maw, but it didn’t thrash or fight anymore, and its organs continued to slip out of its stomach as it died. 

:The bastard got me: My head limply fell to the side as I watched Captain Mercy swim up next to us. My vision had already started to tunnel, and black spots danced in my central vision from hypoxia. 

The captain cradled my neck and the base of my spine in her hands, trying to pry me from the beast’s teeth. I could feel her sentiment in my Neur-All, and I slowly reached out to her. 

:Don’t bother, Cap’n. Just get us to the Tower:

I was grateful she did not contest my request. There was no time to waste. Under the effects of our updated circumstances, I would take Mercy’s place as Thalassa’s meal. 

At least I wasn’t going alone. I took great comfort that the little shit that still clung to my abdomen was coming with me into this great Abyss. 

Inches away from the Tower, Captain Mercy checked in with me one last time. She softly cupped my mask, holding my gaze without blinking. :I would join you. You need only ask it of me:

I smiled weakly, hardly able to hold my own eyes open. :Nah, Cap’n. Go deliver the good news to the People. Go tell my dad that I finally got to see mom:

A mixture of captain Mercy’s relief and guilt wrapped itself into me. With a gentle push, Mercy sent us colliding with the rubbery Tower, triggering Thalassa’s instinctual retraction response. One second, I was watching Mercy kick furiously back to the Station. The next, I was cradled in darkness.  

***

Surprisingly, my Neur-All still functioned as my body, intertwined with another’s, descended into the Below. I hadn’t the slightest clue how long I had until my heart ceased beating, but I wanted to hear his voice one last time. 

My Neur-All rang four times before the other line picked up. 

:Hey, sweetie! How’s Diving trainin’ goin’?:

I relaxed, comforted by the fact that my dad still thought I was back in the Levels. :I’m doing great, dad. I’m top of my class, and they’re sending us on an expedition soon:

My breath caught in my chest, and I didn’t quite catch what my dad said next. I was running out of time. 

:Hey, dad?:

:Yeah, baby?:

:Can you sing me my namesake?:

:Aww, feeling a lil’ homesick, baby girl?:

I hiccuped inside my mask, and my Neur-All warned me of the fatality of my blood loss, blinking in the corner of my vision. :Yeah, somethin’ like that:

His deep voice filled my cranium, reverberating with a gentle hum that lulled me to sleep. Inside my head, I sang along to the silly song lyrics until I couldn’t sing anymore. 

:She's my cherry pie

Put a smile on your face, ten miles wide

Looks so good, bring a tear to your eye

Sweet cherry pie, yeah...:

*** This work is the intellectual property of Melyn McHenry, all rights reserved to M.C.HENRY LLC ***

*** Lyrics used from Cherry Pie written by Warrant and produced by Sony Pictures ***