Do not be foolish, I obviously did not die. How could I tell this if I had? But I would never wear chains again. My life would be as different from it had been as . . . I do not know any words for it. It was a very big change. However, I will always be honest with you. I did think that I had died, when I woke up, for it was all - or most - of what I had expected of the place souls go. The only odd part was that my head was very light and scummy-feeling on the inside. The pain had eased so much I could not feel anything - the drugs, I later learned. It was warm, and I was lying down on what had to be the softest of surfaces, with thick, smooth, utterly blissful blankets wrapped around me. I was dry again, but warm, and so utterly comfortable that I was sure I had passed the testing and was being brought to paradise. There was a great deal of light, not too bright but bouncing off every surface so shiny that my groggy mind decided I was surrounded by jewels, and soft vibrating rumblings on more than two handfuls of low harmonics, and, not really knowing that I knew, movement as I lay there, cozy and warm. Was I on the vessel-which-carries-souls? My eyes were too bleary to make out any detail, and my sense of touch was no better, but I could gradually slide my smoke-light arms out of the blankets to look at them in nothing less than complete amazement. My arms were bare. There was not a trace of the shackles on them. A tender groping of my neck showed it's length was also bare, and moving my legs to feel them with my feet fulfilled the agreement. I was no longer chained. Revelling in the very concept, tears flowed steadily. I counted to ten hands (which is fifty) on my heartbeats. Then I did it again. I was going to paradise! I was free! Never again would I have to - wait, I had a heartbeat? Baffled, I tried to think. Should I have one still? Where was the guide that should be here? Was I supposed to get up to greet her? Him? Them? They had the answers, was I supposed to wait? There was things that the living did not know, and I had too recently come from alive to have found out yet. I decided, after wondering for what might have been very long, or not, that I needed a better look. Since I'd obviously passed the testing, I could not do anything that was wrong. Right? Foolish of me, but my excuse now is painkillers and blood loss and blunt head trauma and shock, all stirred together. I didn't quite manage to sit up before the walls lurched about me and everything went dim as the bed flung itself up toward me as I collapsed again.
~~~~~
That settles it, Joseph thought in a morphine-induced haze, one that did not fully remove the pain he was stoically enduring. As soon as we hit shore, I'm going to clobber Ayda. This has got to be the perverted result of some demonic pact with the universe she's arranged. Sister, I vow to kill thee. Right after I insult, maim, then insult thee again.
Greenboy was . . . a girl.
And Joseph wanted to curl up and die from embarrassment. Yet another thing not adequately covered in officer training: What to do when the underage guy you were shoved into a cell with totally starkers turns out later to be female. A girl! The first non-male he'd encountered in weeks combined with an all-time worst first impression. She - a girl! Oh hell - can't be a day older than Mattie, if that! What had the poor kid endured in his -her!- life? The only sure answers the doctor would give him was that she had a mild fracture on her skull. She'd found the ship the hard way, Ouch. And they told him there was a great deal of older evidence of brutality, but when it had occurred was 'inconclusive as of yet'.
Joseph hadn't liked the way they'd phrased it, he knew when legalese was more 'we don't know dick' than tact. But he'd already figured out that the girl had been seriously mistreated, just from how she had behaved. Answers would be a while in coming - due to her apparent muteness combined with the most recent injury. Before she'd come to briefly a few hours ago, they hadn't even been sure if she'd live or not. She was sleeping normally now, healing.
Her head had been stitched up very carefully - usually procedure just had the area around the gash shaved to make it easier and more hygenic, but the girl's 'hair' had been twitching again and it was decided to leave it all there until the lab onshore could get a better look.
At everything about her. There were going full speed towards shore and a lot of agitated brass; from home and probably soon from across every border with a coastline on it. The brown smellies had sure as sure whacked into the air-movement rotating blades on this one. Joseph had a brief vision of hordes of lab-coated scientists being held back by riot squads and fences, drooling and screaming for samples, reaching out to grab a very scared looking green boy.
Green girl. Better get that straight from now on.
From prize pet to lab rat. Shit happens, eh? At least her chains had been cut off. Joseph hadn't yet woken yet when his bindings were removed, but the blood that still showed oozing, even after several changes of the thick bandages and a lot of transfusions, was enough to confirm that he'd been hurt badly. Being locked inside a decompression chamber certainly wasn't much of a help. He'd already been told he'd need skin grafts and that he'd be scarred anyway. No biggie. Scars were a magnet for women, he had some already, and a few tattoos to match. Not that he'd ever needed much help in that department. Mattie was proof of that.
They weren't telling him anything on the other fishie, the guard. Joseph couldn't speak or write well enough - or stay conscious long enough - to demand much information. He just didn't know the man's fate. It wasn't really too high a priority at the moment for him. But anyone who could kill so easily - hadn't even flinched when he'd slashed the girl's guard - had to be considered a threat.
They were asking lots of questions, he used a pointer taped to his bandages to tap out answers on a keyboard. Slow, clumsy, frustrating, especially when they'd just keep repeating the same questions later. Nothing unusual, it was all procedure, except that he just didn't know many of the answers. The ones he did know were mostly all bad. He tried to keep it brief. Movement hurt, but any more painkillers and he was too looped to be of any use.
dead during first attack.
injured severly then killed in base.
sub destroyed.
unknown.
assume worst.
remains taken by enemy.
base location unknown.
swam up along cliff water dark very cold pressure extremely high pass out.
surprised not dead from exposure depth should have been beyond lethal.
unknown.
underground.
stone.
estimated number thousands based on hundred plus seen.
large base very large fortified.
slave labor one dictator.
unknown guess fought to power.
he killed paulo who was badly hurt for fun.
took old gun from wall.
frank already dead from first attack.
blade weapons knife spear.
surprised us attack move very fast.
have gills some.
air in base.
iron primitive.
evidence reused sunken items for tools also make own.
thick armor but weak points can move very fast.
no.
leader kill 3 own slaves after paulo then laugh.
unknown.
unknown.
has antique some recent weaponry display with bodies and parts of on trophy wall.
some slaves display alive also green girl was prized one others iron chains hers gold.
no electronics seen fires for light.
unknown air supply.
unknown.
unknown estimate years at least stone had time to wear down some water time decay evident few places.
green girl was show pet other slaves no hair.
aided escape her help valuable.
guard help warning guard kill fellow in process.
yes.
unknown if understand english.
unknown.
few spoke very poor broken english when questioning me.
girl seem mute know signs.
caution guard possible high ranking caution trap unknown assume hostile but did help escape.
child seems very afraid no others like in base seen - iron chains on all other slaves hers gold as mine was prize.
unknown.
told nothing.
unknown.
many varied species guard is similar to some but not same race as most ranking.
no.
unknown.
no.
not all slaves or soldiers seems third class also no armor no chains but has hair.
slaves many various race.
unknown.
no children seen only green girl.
warrior culture.
brutal.
no.
killing is entertainment for dictator others frightened but not surprised.
most scared by presence.
unknown.
assume dangerous extreme unknown other dangers.
warning we are not alone.
It was after a couple such time-consuming but short, jumbled messages that Joseph would be allowed to doze off until they could question him again. He knew there would be a huge fuss over the whole thing: how large, how numerous was this threat? How many other underwater peoples were there? Could they even be considered people? Did they evolve from us or us from them or are they aliens or an animal that looked very close? There had been no sign of anything like this, ever, not even the wild 'i seen me a merman' stories told by drunk fishermen for decades and then WHAM!
It seemed they had a lot of learning to do.
Joseph hoped that some of the people - there had no be more than that one base, there just had to - were friendly. Or at least not as hostile. If even a little of the unexplored sea floor had settlements, the people from above the water might be outnumbered, there was just that much room in the depths. If there proved to be any more bases and tyrants such as the one he'd been in, it might mean the abrupt ending of the fledgling explorations from the surface. Replacing it might be some large-scale fights where the enemy definitely had the advantage of knowing the terrain, and gills! One good hole in any sub, and it was finished by the pressure alone, never mind the drowning. Serious crap.
No matter what happened, it was out of his hands. He hated not having any control in a situation. Then the pressure adjusted again, causing him to slip off into bad dreams and healing.