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It was six bells into the First Watch when Toby came to the bridge. The way Xiphos looked back at him gave Toby the impression she had thought she was the only one awake aboard the Rose, though he didn’t seem to startle her. Xiphos sat with her lights turned down, the little light she had mingling with the light off her screens. She had pushed the screens away, clearing her view of the world outside the bubble. They were under again, the waves above too choppy to keep sailing on the surface.
Toby carried with him a tea pot and one of the last of his leftover baked goods, a simple cookie on a plate. He set down the tea pot, a cup and saucer, and the cookie , all on a little table next to Xiphos. She turned to him as he started away.
“Hey Cupcake,” she said. “You don’t have to leave.”
Toby paused at the portal, and then turned back around. He carefully took a seat in the empty navigator’s station. Xiphos poured herself some tea, and let the cup sit to cool on the table.
It had been a busy day. Cait had taken the information from the Traders and keyed in the route while Xiphos slept. They were following a boat with no name, just a registration number. They were still a few days off from the boat, and just a little further from Narwe Canal, the link between the South Ocean and the North Ocean. Just a few days, Cait had said, and they’d get to the people who took the map. If Xiphos could coax herself to sleep after tonight, it’d be a miracle.
Toby fidgeted next to her, watching out the bubble just as she did. Then, screwing up his courage, he asked, “What were they like?”
Xiphos cast Toby a sidelong glance. “What?”
“The New Archer Revolutionaries? You said you were friends with them.” He mumbled, his courage disappearing.
Xiphos thought a moment. “They were nice,” she said. “I always felt really lucky to get to be around them. I never had to ask to be around them, they just kind of… allowed me to be there. They always were around each other, and I always got to be there, always invited to dinner when Fink’d cook. You…”
She stopped, her face flush, not looking at Toby. She dropped her voice. “You remind be a lot of him, like how you cook and how quiet you are and stuff. He was pretty relaxed, though, and he loved plants. And he had a huge crush on Manni.” She stopped again. “We all had a huge crush on Manni…”
Toby took all of this in, turned now to watch Xiphos talk. Xiphos gave Toby another quick glance, and quickly dropped her eyes to her controls. “You ever had a girlfriend?” Xiphos asked.
“Yeah…” Toby said, fidgeting again. He dropped his eyes away, too.
“What?” Xiphos said, raising her voice. “You’re, like, eight.” She smiled at him all the same.
Toby shrugged. “It was last summer. It didn’t last too long, like a month I guess. Mostly we wandered around the woods and made out-” He stopped himself, but it was too late. Xiphos watched on, her turn to drink everything in.
“I kinda screwed it up,” Toby continued, his ears dropping.
Xiphos’s smiled faded. “That happens,” she said. She sat back in her chair. “Crash was my first… well, everything. She went after me. How weird is that? I ran away from that. Well, not that, but the whole thing, the revolutions.”
“I’m sorry,” Toby said.
“Yeah, but..” Xiphos said, letting her eyes follow wire conduits on the ceiling. “I mean, I wouldn’t've met Nina, or Cait. We wouldn’t be having this conversation. Also, they kind’ve disappeared, and I don’t know if I’d be included in-”
An alarm went off on Xiphos’s control panel. She swung her gaze around, sitting up, and then instantly paging her control screens through until they showed the long-range sonar. One little dot, a dozen miles back, was on a collision course for them, and getting closer far too quickly. Xiphos fumbled with the radio, her face a mask of stark terror.
“Captain,” she started, “we have a Wanderer-”
Cait was out her door before Xiphos finished, the alarm echoing in her quarters, fully awake. “How much time?” She asked.
“Four minutes,” Xiphos said. She jumped from her chair and, throwing open a locker along the back wall of the bridge, pulled out three bright orange suits. Cait took the radio from the control console.
“Everybody wake up,” her voice echoed through the ship. “We have a Wanderer. Survival suits. Two minutes. Get up to the bridge if you can.” She clicked the radio off. She helped Tobias into his, giving him a quick rundown of his rebreather, how to turn his oxygen on, how to activate his emergency beacon. She then put her own on.
The voices started right after, one or two at first, a low murmur over the intercom. Xiphos tried to turn down the volume, but they got louder, more of them, all speaking at the same time, until there were thousands. Toby couldn’t understand them, any one of them, the languages they spoke sounding at once ancient and alien. The roar of the voices drowned out everything, the hum of the engines, the alarm, the captain. Toby covered his ears, which only muted the sound slightly. And still the dot got ever closer.
Billy and Tre joined them on the bridge, both in their survival suits. That’s when the Wanderer’s dot eclipsed theirs. Xiphos tensed, holding tight to the back of her chair.
The Rose shook violently, listing sideways, knocking Toby off his feet. The bridge was suddenly bathed with light, so bright it washed away the bridge itself. So bright their shadows first stood strong against the wall, and then succumbed to the light. The voices started to fade, and then, as the light disappeared into the haze of the ocean, the voices stopped, the Rose’s alarms seeping back in to the cabin.
The Relay feed came alive, all boats in the area all chattering at once. The sonar showed the dot speeding away, until it left the screen. Xiphos cautiously climbed back into her chair, barely able to slide in with her survival suit on. She was visibly shaking, but Toby, picking himself up off the ground, figured they all were.
“One-hundred eighty-two knots,” Xiphos said, her voice breaking.
“That may be a record,” Cait said. “Anyone need help?”
Xiphos scanned the Relay feed. “Nothing yet,” she said. “Just sightings talk.”
Cait turned to Billy and Tre. “I want a status report straight away. I will help.”
“Sir,” Toby said. “What was that?”
Billy clasped a hand on Toby’s shoulder. “That was your first Krakken sighting.” He gave the boy a quick smile, and then hurried off into the Rose. Tre followed.
“Tobias,” Cait said, removing her survival suit. “I do not believe any of us will be able to sleep tonight. Do you feel up to making us a midnight Tea?”
Toby nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Thank you, dear.” She left to join Billy and Tre.
Toby struggled out of his survival suit, and he could hear Xiphos doing the same. As he finished, Xiphos took his hand. He turned around, eyes wide, but before he could say anything, she pulled him into a tight hug. Toby gave a muffled protest, then, giving up, very carefully rested his head against hers. They stood together, shaking, hugging if only because they were both alive.
“This doesn’t leave the bridge,” Xiphos said. She let go and, looking embarrassed, sat down in her chair. She turned back to the controls. “Now go make some damn tea.”
[g]
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