Aftermath, Chapter 13: Shadow of the Dragon

"In death we see equality, for all that lives must surely die.  With the invention of the last will and testament, we have the means for the dead to strike out at the living one last time."

~ Attorney Lewis Dewey of the Dewey-Cheatum Law Firm (1989)

---------------------------

I woke up to Violet pushing my eyelid open.  She giggled, drooled and reached for my other eye with her tiny fingers.  I took a slow breath and savored the moment.  Tiny giggling noises, the scent of the baby shampoo their mother favored as well as the lingering scent of vanilla and honeysuckle.  It was a profound comfort, that moment of peace when my whole world was just a little elf girl smiling back at me.

"Are you awake?" Aria whispered.

"Yeah.  Violet is just checking my eyes to make sure they work." I replied.

Violet giggled at the sound of her name, her twin Jasmine peeked over her shoulder to investigate the happenings.

"Hi girls." I said softly. "I missed you both so much. Aria, Honey, how are you?"

My wife put on the ghost of a smile. "I'm fine.  Shade magicked me up almost as well as you do baby.  I have to say though, I don't know why you haven't quit the life yet.  Getting shot sucks."

I felt anger start to bubble up inside me.  Jasmine climbed over her sister and kissed me on the nose, quenching my rage in joy and drool.  I reached out and took Aria's hand.  She squeezed tightly as the twins took turns pulling at my hair, giving me kisses, and poking at my eyes.  "I'm so sorry honey."

Aria lay down next to me and put her arm over me and the squirming twins.  "Let's not talk about that right now. I'm just glad you're with us."

We lay there, playing with the twins while Rose and Lily stood by in the astral plane watching for threats.  An hour ticked by faster than I would have thought possible, before Sheila opened the door and joined us.

"We need to talk, Tommy." Her voice was softly inflected and weighted with a severity I could feel in my bones.

*****

Aria protested that her mother wanted to speak with me alone.  Words were said that surprised me and I think I may have actually seen SheilaX flinch.  The scene deescalated as a foul odor wafted up from the twins. Aria and Lily took the suddenly stinky twins out for a change and a bath while I was left alone with my fixer.

"You can't get away from this by dying again, Tommy." Sheila didn't waste any time. "You're going to have to make this right or they're going to just keep at you."

She fixed me with a stare that would melt the nerve of any sane being. "If they hurt my little girl again, or my grandchildren, I'll cut off your head and deliver it to them myself."

I didn't know what to say to that.

"You've been a great asset and Aria loves you." Sheila paused a moment, her emotionless eyes focusing on nothing. "She loves you, but she needs to keep breathing.  Last night someone shot her, over you.  I won't accept that.  Fix this Tommy.  Now."

"Any idea how?" I asked.

"Do you know what they want?"

"I think so, yeah." I replied.

"Can you give it to them?"

"Maybe.  I'm not sure about that.  I do know they shouldn't have it." I said.

"I don't give a damn if they should have it or not Tommy!" The steel came back into Sheila's voice and I found myself fixed by her glare.  "Give it to them, work out a deal, or die trying.  You have forty-eight hours." My mother-in-law left the 'or else' out.  I was certain she would make good on her threat if I didn't find an impressive solution to an impossible problem.

How do you appease a dead dragon?

*****

February 14th, 2061

Happy fraggin' Valentines' Day.  I had less than twelve hours to fix my life before Sheila would end it.

The word on the street was that some heavy hitters were looking for a certain shadowy wizard.  My family was in hiding again, I was mostly broke after paying Angel and Crank what I owed them, and the more I learned about the mess I was in the less I liked it.

SheilaX made some discreet inquiries and found the Johnson behind the hit team.  Angel hacked his commlink and left him an email.

"This is Thomas Michael Gunne.  I want to talk to your boss."

The return email address routed through more dead drop accounts thank I could count. Two hours later I had a return email.  "Where and when?"

I kissed Aria, taking in the scent of vanilla and honeysuckle and silently prayed that it wouldn't be the last time I saw her.  Jasmine and Violet were asleep on the bed.  SheilaX watched as I said my goodbyes.

"I'll get things squared away." I promised my wife.

"You come home to me Tommy." Aria whispered to me. "Promise me?"

I took a slow breath, looked right into her beautiful eyes and lied. "I promise baby."  I kissed her again, turned and walked out of the safe house.

Crank was on the street in front of the safe house, sitting on his pink scooter.  There wasn't another soul around to be seen.

"You comin' back Tommy?" he asked.

"Yeah, Crank." I lied. "You know me, I'm like one of those bum drones with a bad GPS. Always landing in the yard."

Crank's face hardened slightly. "Yeah.  I thought you'd say something like that." The big man stood up and walked up to me, looking down at me with worried eyes.

"I don't have many good friends Tommy." he said.

"That's because I've got all the best ones in town, Crank." I grabbed his huge hand and squeezed.

"Damn, that kinda hurts Tommy." A ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "If you don't come back.  If you get lost or something.  Call me."

"I'm coming back, Crank." I told him. "I've got a plan."

"A good one?" he asked.

I looked at my chummer and shelved the bulldrek. Crank was my friend, he had earned a little chip-truth. "Not really."

"Yeah, that's what I figured." he said. "You need a good gun hand, I've got two."

At that moment I really wanted to say yes. I wanted to have my friend with me, but I didn't want his blood on my hands.  "Thank you, Crank.  I've got this. Do me a favor though and make sure Jazz gets up on his feet?  Maybe introduce him to some people.  He's a good gun hand and I think you'd like him."

"Will do, chummer."  Crank clasped his hand on my shoulder.  This time, it didn't hurt at all.  "Do your thing and duck back into the shadows omae.  I'd hate to have to train another magician to be a decent runner."

"Keep your head down, Crank. I'll see you." I paused for moment.  "Honorable and professional, two rare qualities that you've got in spades."  I stepped around my friend, wove an invisibility spell around myself and vanished from sight.

The air elemental carried me away and I soared south. "Lily, protect Aria and your sisters.  Rose, GATEKEEPER."

"Be careful, father." Their concern carried through the link we shared. I spared a moment and looked through Lily's eyes as she rocked Jasmine to sleep.  I changed my focus and watched as Rose surfaced from the waves and spread her wings beneath a brilliant, star-filled sky.

I triggered my reply email as my feet touched down on familiar ground.  I put down the address and added, "Come alone."  I stuck the commlink in my pocket and knelt down to clear some branches from Pepper's grave.

"I'm sorry to do this here." I said as I sat down in the thin layer of snow that covered Pepper's grave. I sat there and talked as if my old friend could hear me.  Maybe he could.  After fifteen minutes the wind picked up fiercely and tall woman dropped from the sky and landed with all the grace of a cat.  Her flaming red hair and bright orange eyes were luminous under the night sky.

"Thomas Michael Gunne," she said. "you actually came all by yourself.  Is it foolish pride, a martyr's conviction, naivete or a death wish?"

"Probably just hopeless optimism." I replied. "I want to resolve our differences before anyone else gets hurt."

"You betrayed and killed my servant." She took a single step toward me. "One who had served me far longer than you can imagine."

"He betrayed our contract, tried to extort something that is rightfully mine, beat me and threatened my family.  His behavior was disgraceful, dishonorable and wholly unprofessional." I took a breath and a step toward her. "So yes, I killed him."

"Proud of it are you?" There was the slightest hint of something dire in her tone. "Killed a dragon, didn't you boy?  Murdered a being of such magnificence that you can't even comprehend its true nature." She took another long stride toward me, closing the gap between us to two meters.

"I'm not proud of having killed anyone. That's a disorder for psychos like Creep." I took a single step toward the woman. With less than a meter between us I caught the scent of cinnamon and something like smoke and molten metal. "I am pretty sure dragons don't work for metahumans.  You're a dragon yourself or the agent of one. I'm no threat to you, unless you keep after my family and then I can be a real problem."

She bristled at that, her hair turning a brighter shade of red.

"I'm pretty sure you can kill me outright but that isn't what you want." I looked her right into her blazing orange reptilian eyes. "You want the Place of Gates, and you can't have it."

"Another will take your place." She hissed at me.

"No doubt." I replied. "But it will be an eternity before that happens. Even now my daughter waits your decision. If you kill me she will seal the gates and deny you access for ages. You can kill me and wait for another age to come along or you can work with me and I can allow you access, but not for free."

"You dare?!" She spat.

"Yes." I reigned in my fear and put on my best glare. "You'll find that I can dare to do anything."

Her telepathic roar echoed in my skull.  Blood trickled from the corners of my eyes as the capillaries in my tear ducts ruptured. I was knocked flat from the force of her will.

"This again?" I asked as I picked myself up and rose once again to face her. "Your servant tried the same thing.  Can we deal, or do we fight, you kill me and lose the Place of Gates?"

"I don't have to kill you little mage, I can deliver unto you such torment that you will beg for death." Smoke snaked from her nostrils as her hands clenched into fists.

"I've been tormented by an enemy of madness and night. I've faced the Hell of men and been tortured by my greatest fears made reality. I've seen horrors," she flinched at that. "that no metahuman can describe.  Do your worst and you will lose that which you seek. A second time I ask, can we deal?"

Her neck elongated as her form shifted. Golden orange scales took shape as the dragon revealed herself.  She was massive, dwarfing the one she had only named as her servant.

The ground shuddered beneath her.  I felt the tingle of static shocks as the very air came alive from contact with her naked power.  Her long, scaled tail crashed down, creating a furrow in the church yard's lawn and cracking the plascrete in the parking lot. The dragon flared out her wings and blocked out the moon and stars. The very sky itself was replaced by the shadow of the great dragon before me.

Someone pissed my pants.

*****

Thank you for reading my fan fiction.  I want to thank Russell Zimmerman, Stephen Kenson, Lisa Smedman, Robert N. Charrette, Tom Dowd, Mel Odom, the legendary Nigel Findley (RIP), Michael A. Stackpole and so many others who have brought the world of Shadowrun to life for all of us fans.  Each added more color, depth, and breathed life into the setting in their own way and I am grateful to each of them.

We are nearing the end of "Aftermath".  I hope you are enjoying this tale and that it in some way will breath a little more life into your own Shadowrun world and experience.

I hope you'll join me for Chapter 14.

Thank you.
W.S. "Sam" Quinton

Operation Emerald: Part two ~ Dig toward damnation

November 17th, 2060

1100 hours, operational area local time

My comm beeped in my ear, waking me from my nap.  (Here's a tip chummers, when you're out on a job grab sleep whenever you can!)

"Machine, can you come take a look at this?" Simon's voice was oddly inflected.  It wasn't often that I had heard Simon speak when something had him stumped.

"On my way." I replied.  I yawned and stretched then pulled my socks and boots back on.  The Osprey was comfortably hidden under the camouflage netting. Hidden from the sun, the interior was pleasantly cool.  I hurried down the ramp and onto the salt-beach.  "All personnel, report."

I heard a steady stream of  "All clear." as one by one the team reported in.  Zero called in last with, "We're good to go here."

It took me a just a couple of minutes to reach the white tent where Simon had set up the remote sensor equipment.  I walked in and found Simon, Jazz, and Creep staring at an empty space through their AR optics.  I pulled on my own AR goggles, and tapped into the feed they were watching.  "What am I looking at?" I asked.

"That," Simon sighed thoughtfully, "is the density anomaly in the lake bed. I thought at first it might be a subsurface lava tube, or maybe a hot spring.  Problem is the dimensions, they're too mathematically perfect for a natural occurrence.  It looks suspicious to me."

Simon was smart and capable.  I looked at the 3D model of the anomaly and had to agree with him. The area of lower density was a cylinder.  It looked precisely circular and cut through the salt bed down through the bedrock below.  "Mathematically perfect? What do you mean?" I asked.

Simon blew up the image in cross-section. "I'm doing a high-resolution mapping scan. It's reliable down the millimeter.  So far as I can tell from this sensor the width of the anomaly is precisely four thousand millimeters, perfectly straight, all the way down.  That's four meters across. I took measurements of the circle circumference and came up with twelve thousand five hundred sixty-six millimeters.  Sensor readings bounce back and forth between adding a point three or point four on the end of that calculation."  Simon shook his head thoughtfully.  "No way that is natural."

"Okay, explain a bit harder. I can do the math, but I don't understand the significance."  It looked artificial to me, but understanding what could be evidence of that was important.

"Well that means that the anomaly, this cylinder of lower density, is a circle that is good for a two meter radius circle using pi to the fourth decimal value.  Probably to the fifth decimal value with that variation in the decimal at the end.  That's probably the sensor's tolerance being reached and trying to reconcile the measurements. You don't see that precision unless you're looking at aerospace level precision, so missiles, rockets, satellite boosters, ICBM's and that sort of thing."  Simon looked over his AR glasses at me. "In short, it's artificial.  Could Control have found a forgotten missile silo?"

"I don't know.  You were in the same mission briefing I got, 'Investigate subsurface anomaly and report', plus the usual spiel about weapon usage for self-defense."  I took a moment to look at the cylinder of less tightly packed salts. "Well, it's not much but we found something.  Any chance we can get more information about what's at the bottom?"

"Not without drilling down through the salt." Simon replied.

"Okay." I thumbed my comm and opened a channel to Zero. "Zero, get Control on the line. We're reporting in."

"Copy that. Wait one for Control." Zero answered.

"Simon, link these images to the comm.  I want Control to see what we've found." I dusted salt from my armored fatigues.  "Salt got everywhere. I'm going to have to call up a water elemental to wash it off."

"I have a thought." Creep said softly. "You said this sensor is good for resolution down to the millimeter.  Can you map the salt filling that tube, then roll out the image?"

"Yeah, let me get the comm set and I'll do that on another rendering." Simon replied.

"Sub-zero. Thanks, Simon." Creep was being calm.  His voice carried a thoughtful tone I had rarely heard.

"What are you thinking?" I asked.

"Not sure exactly.  You know how we've seen carved stone on old ruins?  Well, if this salt pack is lower density, can we lift the surface image from the ultrasound if any exists?"  Creep replied.

Simon interjected, "I think I see where you're going with that.  I doubt we'll be able to lift anything, but I'll give it a try.  Machine, you're linked up with the images.  They'll be transmitted as soon as Zero links to Control."

"Excellent work. Thank you." I turned to Jazz. "I'm going to want your assessment of our vulnerabilities here. If control wants us to stick around I don't want to be worried about running out of ammunition with so many awakened creatures about.  Plus I want to get Taz out of here as soon as possible for medical attention."

"Understood." Jazz replied.

"Machine, Control is online. Signal is strong, satellite link is secure, it's as private a call as you're likely to ever have." Zero said.

{Want a recording of that call? ~ Angel}

{No thanks, I was there. ~ T}

"Control we are on site.  Hostile encounter with ghouls in the night time hours.  Six wounded.  Five fully healed but we need to evacuate Taz for medical attention.  No fatalities.  We've found an anomaly at the coordinates provided.  Simon has patched our findings so far into the feed. Request permission to un-ass this area of operation, or to at least evacuate Taz for treatment."  I kept my voice calm and waited for what I was certain would be bad news.

"Machine, request to leave the operational area is denied.  Medi-vac for Taz is authorized.  We'll send flight plan to Zero momentarily.  Have Simon patch the body-cam footage to this transmission, we'll process it."  Samantha paused in her reply for a moment. "I'm seeing the anomaly you mention.  How deep does it go?"

I turned to Simon who keyed his own comm and replied, "Fifteen meters down to bedrock then a bit below that into a small cavern area.  Readings are imprecise at that depth.  There may be a gas pocket."

"Understood. What is your situation?" Samantha's voice was the same calm professional tone I had become accustomed to.

"We're fully exposed." Jazz offered up. "Anyone with a mortar is going to ruin our day and end our lives, not to mention anyone with genuine artillery.  Contacts last night were all ghouls.  Scavenged weapons, light or no armor, but we counted two hundred dead. Some of them had communication gear but none of it survived the fighting. No patches or dog tags tying them to any one nation or corporation. Seems they had been raiding villages beyond the desert.  We may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but with so many of them I don't like those odds."  Jazz took a slow breath then added. "We need drone support in strength if we're going to be here for any length of time.  Water is going to be an issue within three days.  Ammunition and heavier weapons for any prolonged stay, as well as sunscreen."

"Received and understood." Samantha replied. "Give me a list and we'll get it loaded when we off load Taz."

"If we're staying here for a while I request additional weapon specialist personnel be brought in.  We caught those ghouls off guard.  If a well organized force finds us before we find them, we've got problems."  I wasn't expecting much, but if we were staying a while I wanted as much firepower as I could get.

"Copy that Machine.  Additional personnel authorized.  We'll get more boots on the ground.  Hold position and call out if you have any further contact with hostiles. Weapons free.  Hold that ground." Jazz's eyebrows arched in surprise.  Beside him, Creep and Simon both shared similar looks.

I steeled myself and replied as calmly as I could. "Copy that. We'll be evacuating Taz in a few minutes.  I'll have Zero stay in touch.  Simon will set up the secondary satellite transmitter and we'll dig in."

"We'll take good care of Taz.  Get him in the air." Samantha replied. "Control out."

I keyed my comm as I walked out of the tent. "Jazz, get the men dug in.  Simon, I want that sat-link running asap.  Once that is done, get some drones out to keep eyes on the desert and put a blimp drone over the lake.  I'm not taking chances on something not being in there.  Creep, cover Simon and let me know if you two find anything from that image once Simon gets it generated."

"Copy that," Jazz and Simon replied in unison.

"Understood, I've got him." Creep reported. "My ladies and I will keep him safe."

*****

1305 hours, operational area local time

The Osprey lifted off from the salt-strewn beach, climbing twenty meters before its wings began to decline as it pulled away from our position.  Salt stung every inch of exposed skin as it was propelled from the down draft.  Taz was tranquilized and sleeping in the belly of the great metal beast.  I watched as the aircraft gained speed and disappeared from my sight.

The salt beach near the lake had seen a lot of activity in a short time.  I had called out to the earth elemental I had bound to me and had it dig one meter deep holes, each three meters across, in spots Jazz indicated. We set up white tents within those holes, then scattered the displaced salts around the tents, blending them into the terrain as best we could.  It wouldn't fool a spy satellite, but it was certainly enough to hide us from any casual flybys.

Salt got everywhere.  It was caked onto my body from my time in the lake.  It was a distracting irritant, so I whispered into the astral plane and called forth one of the water elementals.  I stripped down, washing my fatigues and form fitting body armor in the elemental's manifest form, before having the elemental engulf me to wash the salts off.  No one else wanted an elemental "bath" so once I was dressed I dismissed the spirit back to the astral plane.

Jazz sent in his request.  He asked for rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, a pair of mortars, a handful of surface-to-air missiles, as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition.  I could only imagine the look on Samantha's face when confronted with tens of thousands of nuyen worth of munitions requests.  "She'll not authorize half of it." Jazz told me. "It's just like the marine corp.  Ask for more than you need so that when they reject a lot of it you have enough on hand to make things work."

"I'll remember that." I told him. "How fragged are we?"

He shook his head. "We're the virgin in the whorehouse out here. Anyone who notices can frag us hard."

"Well, then lets make it hurt." I told him. "I wish I knew why we're sticking around though."

"She'll send in someone who knows something, to look into something which is likely to be something." Jazz cracked one of his rare smiles. "Good looking out for Taz.  He's good talent, good people."

"We take care of our own."  I told him.

"Yeah." Jazz looked about a moment. "Can we talk?"

I opened my astral perception and looked around.  There was no sign of any spirits or spells that were watching us. "Yeah, astral is clear.  No guarantee against listening devices but we're safe from listening spells at the moment."

Jazz pulled a small, hemispherical bit of plastic from a pocket.  Small holes dotted its surface.  "Let's take a walk."  Our boots crunched on the desolate salt beach. Jazz hit a button on the back of the device and I heard a soft buzzing sound emit from it.  "White noise generator. Should keep the guys who have hearing augmentation from hearing us."

"Sub-zero.  What's up?" I asked.

"Creep. We still have a problem with him?" Jazz asked.

I looked back for a moment then to Jazz. "I think so. Until further notice, anyway.  It's not the melt-down giggles that bother me.  It's comments he makes about needing to kill something, or 'letting the bad feelings out'.  I think he's insane.  I know he's powerful and that is a bad combination."

"So I'm clear.  He goes off mission, he endangers the team or turns on us. I'll put him down." Jazz looked me in the eye. "This isn't personal for me, it's professional. If this is personal for you, do him yourself."

"If it were personal for me, he'd be dead already." I replied. "But thank you. I completely respect your position."

"Okay. I don't like the fragger, but I don't really know why.  Maybe it's pheromones or something like that."  Jazz looked back toward the lake behind us. "I don't like him but the only thing I can point to is his breakdown in the field and the way he goes kill-happy with those demon women of his.  It's like it excites him.  It's unnerving and makes my trigger finger itch."

"I get that. His magic is different, dark. Other magicians have mentioned it to me. I know spirits that don't like him either." I stuck my hand out and Jazz shook it. "He's a psycho, but he's our psycho. Let's keep him pointed the right way and maybe he'll help us all live a bit longer."

"Understood." Jazz released my hand and shut off his white noise generator. "By the way, my knee has been itching since we first stepped onto this salt shaker."

"Yeah, I think we've just scratched the surface."  We walked back, the only sound being our boots crunching on the salt beach.

*****

1910 hours, operational area local time

"Machine, I've got an airborne contact thirty kilometers out closing fast." Simon's voice was crisp, with just a trace of tension. "Air speed is three hundred kilometers per hour, altitude is one hundred twenty-five meters. I don't have an ID on it yet."

"All personnel, take cover." I came out of my tent and whispered into the astral plane. The earth elemental manifested next to me a tic later. "Talk to me Simon. Will it be over us, near us or just in the neighborhood?"

"Heading straight for us. Will be overhead in five minutes, thirty seconds.  ID pending." Simon replied.

"Copy that. All personnel, get your heads down and do not move. We'll be hidden in a moment."  I pulled an invisibility spell around myself and held it tight.  To the earth elemental I sent a simple command, "Conceal the presence of myself, my men, and our equipment.  Hide all trace of our activities."

The spirit consented with a rumble and grinding of the earth beneath me.  Before my eyes I saw the tents, the satellite uplink dish, and all trace of our comings and goings vanish into the terrain.  It was a mirage of sorts, a spirit power that would hide us from everyone except for astrally active beings.

"Machine, I've got a signature match. Confirm approach is a MIL MI-26 HIND-2 gunship.  Transponder tags it as Djibouti Army, first air cavalry. It's due east of us now. They're transmitting but I haven't been able to break the encryption yet.  I've got translation software standing by for Somali, French, and Arabic."  Simon reported.

"Do not fire unless fired upon." I was banking on us being undetectable.  The heavy helicopter flew overhead minutes later. Circled back over the lake and slowed as it prowled overhead.  I opened my astral sight, looking for any sign that a magician may have been onboard.  It passed above us again, slowing before it landed four hundred meters away, amid the blasted landscape where two hundred ghouls had died the night before.

"Machine," Simon whispered over the line. "I've got a tap into their comms.  I can send it to you if you want."

"In English please." I replied.

I heard a click sound as the channel was spliced in. Whatever language they were speaking in Simon had filtered it out.  The voice in my head was male and generic, like any voice that might be used for electronic personal assistants.  "HQ, we have many dead in the area, all look like ghouls.  Likely the fight happened within the last twenty-four hours.  Several explosive blast patterns, possibly from grenades.  Looks like quite a fire-fight occurred.  No sign of hostiles in the area.  No sign of the aircraft."

Drek.

"Capture images and then resume airborne patrol.  Was their any activity at Lac Assal?" A second voice, this time female sounded over the comm.

"Negative.  No one around.  All instruments show no-contact.  There is nothing and no one here." I breathed a little easier. "We'll be airborne in fifteen minutes."

I watched through my Zeiss optical binoculars as six hard looking soldiers moved among the dead, gathering images with their gun cams.  Creep appeared next to me in astral space.  "Technically I'm not disobeying orders. I stayed right where I am." His aura blazed with power.

My thought voice seemed to reach him just fine. "What's up, Creep?"

"Poking my head up.  I can call up the ladies but I think they might show up on thermal." His concern made sense. "They are pretty hot." He smiled as his own thin joke.

"Good catch. Stay frosty." I replied.

He nodded and vanished in a flash.

It was a long fifteen minutes.  I watched the troops move among the dead, then board their helicopter.  They were airborne and flying away in short order.  For another ten minutes we were still.  Hiding against any unseen surveillance that may have been watching us.

Simon's voice came over the comm as I rose and dropped the invisibility spell. "No other EM traffic in the area. We're clear."

"Copy that. I'm dropping the concealment now." I whispered to the earth spirit and its power bled away into the local manasphere.  The team was laying about, weapons at the ready.  "Good work everyone."

"I can't believe they didn't spot us." Ding said.

"Not all magic is flash and bang." I told him. "Look at it this way.  We didn't have to fire a shot, no one died, and we don't have to worry about reinforcements showing up to kill us."

*****

November 18th, 2060

0215 hours, operational area local time

Zero brought the Osprey in just fifteen meters above ground level.  We had the camouflage nets over it as soon as the rotors came to a halt.  Simon was tapping into the Djibouti military channels and was confident the Osprey hadn't been spotted.  I decided to err on the side of caution and had the earth elemental use its power to conceal the aircraft.

Samantha had sent us an additional six weapon specialists, two trolls, two orcs, a human and an elf. Each of them carried themselves like they knew their business.  We offloaded the additional weapons and ammunition. I was surprised to see that we had received most of what Jazz had requested.  A dredging rig was the last piece of hardware to come off the Osprey, accompanied by a man in his early thirties who brought a lot of bad news with him.

"I'm looking for Mr. Machine." he said.

"I'm, 'Machine'.  Who are you?" I had never seen the man before and his presence made me very curious.

He thrust is hand out to me. "Doctor Charles Ling-Thomas.  Doctor of archaeology. Pleasure to meet you."

I took his hand for a quick shake. "Pleasure to meet you doctor. Why are you here?"

His face took on a questioning look. "Why, I'm here about the excavation.  I'm told you've found something."

"Something.  Yes we found 'something' but we don't know what yet." I looked at the dredging equipment that had come off the Osprey.  "You know how to use that?"

"Yes, indeed I do.  I've had extensive experience with underwater finds."  The good doctor seemed at ease.  "I confess though, I haven't the foggiest idea of what you hope to find out here."

"Me neither." I confessed.  I spoke with Doctor Charles for nearly an hour. He was operating under the impression that this was a new dig site and he fully expected to be on-site for months. 


0618 hours, operational area local time

The sun was rising but I was underwater.  I hammered down six pitons into the lake bed, and secured the nylon lines that anchored the dredging rig in place.  Dr. Charles Ling-Thomas, call sign "Sherlock", seemed right at home in his scuba gear.  He swam effortlessly and situated the dredging pipes with clear familiarity.

"Machine, get clear from the run-off pipe.  It will cut you bloody if the waste jet hits you." Sherlock warned. "You'll hear some high pitched noise when the screws kick in an start cutting on the bed.  That is normal.  Power cell is good for four hours, then we'll have to switch them out."

"Copy that, Sherlock. Let's get to work." I saw him thumb the control panel, and heard the rig whine to life.  Small pebbles of salt and rock came shooting out the run-off pipe, propelled by a jet of water. With that, we had begun our dig toward damnation.

That is not dead which can eternally lie ... (Part Two: Deep Magic)

 “Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 2nd, 2060

2340 hours, operational area local time

None of us were sailors.  The research vessel RV Sally Ride was under her own power and Taz had engaged the engine to pull us away from the island that rising from the deep, directly beneath us.  Our rigger, Zero, was manning the mini-sub we had arrived in and was talking Taz through the process of moving the vessel.

Unfortunately, Zero forgot about the anchor.

The Sally Ride's anchor caught on one of the spires of stone I saw rising up from the deep.  The ship lurched hard to starboard as the anchor chain held.  Her engines pushed on, causing the ship to list perilously.  On the bridge Taz reacted by turning to the starboard, wrapping the anchor chain a third of the way around the rising spire and snaring the ship to the island.

"STOP! STOP!" Zero yelled over the comm, but it was too late.  Taz disengaged the ship's engine and she drifted slowly starboard, the deck righting as anchor chain lost tension.

"What the fraggin' hell?!?" I said.  "Taz, Zero report! What the hell just happened?"  It was a long minute before I received a reply.

"Damnit! Anchor was down.  I hand't thought to have Taz check for that.  Looks like your snagged on the island." Zero was frustrated and I was worried.

"Is there a way to release the anchor, to let the ocean have it?" I dashed over to the starboard side of the ship and saw the chain stretching down toward the rising island.  The anchor had caught on one of stone spires and was wrapped almost halfway around it.

"You'll need a torch and it'll take time.  I recommend putting the bow toward whatever you're snagged on and reversing the ship's engine at low power to pull away as the island rises.  You'll likely end up beached but that beats ending up high and dry in the middle of the island."   Zero's plan made sense but wasn't appealing.

"I've got this," Jazz replied.

Jazz secured a safety line to the railing and lowered himself down to the anchor chain.  I watched as he rolled out a grey paste onto one of the links.  Three minutes later he was back on the deck.  "Control, I'm blowing the chain.  Fire in the hole!" Jazz called out as he thumbed the detonator.  There was a loud "BANG" sound from over the rail.  I gazed through the smoke and saw the anchor chain falling away below us.

"Det cord. Never leave the office without it." Jazz said.  I saw the ghost of a smile cross his features.

"I'll remember that." I replied. I keyed my comm and gave the order. "Taz, Jazz saved our hoops. Get us the hell out of here."

"Initiating the 'get the hell out of here' maneuver!" Taz called back.  I heard the engines engage and felt the ship start forward.  "Jazz, get the men together mid-ship.  Eyes open and weapon's up.  We're not out of here yet."

Jazz was crisply professional.  The weapon specialists snapped to it and took up positions mid-ship.  The RV Sally Ride began to slowly pick up speed.  I could hear Creep vomiting over the rail not ten meters from me.  Below the ship, the fish and jellyfish had vanished.  Foul smelling bubbles were rising from the depths.  I could make out strange shapes moving about the surface of the land below. They were dark, indistinct, and moved erratically around the ring of spires. I could just make out a strange stone in the middle of the spires.  It was oblong and had to be four meters long or more.


October 3rd, 2060

0118 hours, operational area local time

The rock spires broke the surface, rising nearly twenty centimeters each minute.  The ocean water had warmed another three degrees locally, and green patches were appearing as algae bloomed in the energetic waters.  The RV Sally Ride drifted five hundred meters from the position where we had found her. Our mini-sub, dubbed "Peanut", held station twenty meters from the research vessel.

"Machine, what am I looking at?" Jazz asked suddenly.

I followed his pointing finger to the six rocky spires that were erupting skyward.  "Rock formations.  They're about fifty meters long and run to the center point of the island that is coming up." I had seen them from directly above. They were long and strangely narrow and were now the first part of the new island to see the night sky.

"No.  On the spires.  Do you see those shapes?  Looks like they've been carved." Jazz looked at me, a strange expression on his face. Jazz's cybereyes looked natural but I knew they had state of the art vision enhancements built in.  Jazz turned back toward the spires and added, "I've got a bad feeling."

With the algae blooming I had forced my astral sight closed against the living glare.  Now as I stared across the sea I felt as if Jazz's foreboding was contagious.  "Right.  I'm going to go take a look.  Get Creep off his ass and cover me."

I whispered into the astral and the air elemental responded.  A moment later I was flying over the ocean toward the rock spires that continued to rise up from the bubbling sea.  "Zero can you get a bumblebee out here too, please." Extra eyes couldn't hurt.

"Will do.  Two minutes." Zero replied.

Below me I saw the sea floor rising.  The spires erupted from a high point in the terrain and were now a full three meters above the water, with perhaps as much as another twenty meters remaining below the surface.  They were raising rapidly now as the island clawed its way toward the surface.  I was ten meters away when I saw what Jazz had noticed from half a kilometer out: the surface of the spires were carved and shaped like the tentacles of an octopus.  Suckers lined the interior facing of each spire.  It was a sea monster of stone, reaching for the night sky.

"Control," I heard myself whisper. "are you seeing this?"

"Machine, is that stone or some form of paracritter?" Samantha's voice lacked its usual detachment and carried with it a sense of awe and dread.

I flew over to the nearest spire and ran my hand over the cold, hard stone.  I shivered uncontrollably as my skin made contact.  It was slimy from algae and millennium under the ocean.   "Feels like stone to me." I reported.

I heard Taz whisper over the comm. "Crazy."

Below me the sea continue to bubble with foul smelling gases.  I was close enough that I could see the rising island below.  I watched as man-like shapes shrouded in flowing dark fabrics danced along the sea floor.  A cold chill sunk into my soul.

"Control we have people on the island.  I repeat: we have people on the island."  They moved through the water below, dancing through the currents and spinning about the ring of spires.  The island was still clawing its way skyward and the sea floor they danced over rolled and shifted as silt and sand were sliding away.

"Machine, please confirm: you say you have people on the island?" Samantha asked.

"They're dancing around the tentacles, under the sea.  Just below me, and ..." I trailed off as I turned to follow the movement of the strange dancing people under the sea.  I saw the dark oblong shape approaching the surface. The tentacle spires were rising far faster now and were more than ten meters high above the surface. The oblong shape was of the same stone the tentacles had been carved from and was shaped like the beak of giant octopus.  The drowned corpses of the crewmen of the RV Sally Ride had been stuffed into the maw. "Merciful heaven." I whispered.  I looked about the rising tentacles of stone and opened my astral sight.

I flew away as fast as the air elemental could take me.  "Zero, keep the drone on station!  Control we need a fire mission on this location, what can you give me?!"

Samantha Goode reacted with surprise, "What?  Machine this is a recon mission not a combat op. Explain."

"God's name, Samantha, the tentacles have an astral presence.  Its alive Samantha!  The missing crewmen were stuffed in its beak.  The dancers in the water, I think it’s a ritual of some kind. They're trying to summon it or wake it up!"  I alighted onto the deck of the Sally Ride.  "Jazz do we have anything on hand we can kill those fraggers with?"

Jazz looked around the fire team, then back to me. "Well, yeah Machine.  We've got about ten things we can use to kill them. Eleven if you count Creep."

"I may just start to like you, Jazz.  Don't get me killed." I keyed my comm. "Control, are we getting fire support?"

"Assets aren't in place Machine.  I'm working on it.  For now, assume you're on your own." Samantha was back to the same calm professionalism I had heard in her voice so often before.  "You're call, Machine.  Go or no go?"

I looked at Jazz then back to the bubbling sea where eight tentacle spires were rising toward the night sky.  The astral echoes of fear and the screams of dying men were all about me. There was magic in the air and in the bubbling depths beneath the sea.  The thing being brought into our world had no place here and it had already taken the lives of the RV Sally Ride.

"Control we are go.  Keep us apprised of the availability of fire mission. Simon stay on comms and monitor bio-monitors for the team. Zero standby to extract as need be and get as many bumblebees over that place as you can.  Creep and I will provide air cover and magical support, rest of the team dives and eliminates the people dancing around that thing."  I lifted off the deck of the ship. Behind me nine men and women pulled their scuba gear back on and headed aft.  "Creep, come on and get your game face on."

Creep was pale and looked very sick, but he waved that weird wand of his and floated off the deck.  I unsealed the watertight pouch I carried and pulled out my menpo-style ballistic mask.  I pulled the mask on and reached out telepathically to Rose and Lily.  Beside me Creep was suddenly accompanied by six demonic looking women.  Their batlike wings beat the air while smoke smoldered from their noses and flames licked at their cloven hooves.  As always, they were nude, their burnt red skin, and horns adding to their demonic appearance.

"Divers in the water." Jazz reported.

"I'm sending a water elemental to get you their undetected.  One tick." I whispered out the commands to one of the water elementals I had bound and watched as it sped toward the team.  "You'll be out of sight momentarily. Begin approach and stay together until you reach the target area."

"Copy that and thanks." Jazz replied.

"What do we do if it wakes up?" Creep asked.

"We kill it or die trying." I replied.  Creep didn't have a reply for that.  We flew out over the bubbling sea while the stars began to disappear as clouds rolled in.  I saw flashes of lightning on the horizon and heard the distant report of thunder.

Creep and I took up position over the tentacle spires.  The beak had broken the surface and the silt and muck from the bottom of the sea had been worn away by the waves.  The tentacles all sprouted from a single piece of stone, the center of which being the beak.  Waves continued to wear away the silt, revealing larger sections of a monster carved from living stone.  The figures dancing around the spires continued splashing along, arms flailing and long dark fabric trailing around them.  I saw the team slip from the water, grab a dancer and drag him back down beneath the waves.  The remaining dances stopped and turned toward the area their missing comrade had occupied.

Rose arrived in astral space beside me.  "Creep, I think your ladies need to introduce themselves." Tentacles formed from the turbulent sea rose and lashed out and Creep and I.  Creeps demons dove toward the figures only to be met by explosions of sea water.

"Lily is changing Violet.  She will be here once she is done." Rose's thought voice carried to my mind.

"Excellent. Thanks for coming baby-girl." I replied.

"The ones below are enemies?" Rose asked.

"Yes, indeed." I replied.

Creep's demons fell from the sky.  Tattered and torn by water, they were snuffed out of existence.  Creep raised his hand in a warding gesture as the tentacles of sea water reached for us.

"I will do violence." Rose took on her angelic appearance and left the astral plane, materializing beside me. She raised her arms toward the watery tentacles crashing toward us and spoke. "Aquam Perdo Si Ick Suon!"

Water exploded in a cloud of steam and stinking slime. Creep got splattered in stinking algae. In my mind I heard Lily, "I have disposed of the stinky diaper and am on my way."  I laughed. I couldn't help it. I held my left hand extended in a warding gesture and felt mana energies slam into my defenses. Beside me Creep cursed vehemently.

"Earth and stone, hear me." I said aloud as I called out to the astral for the earth elemental I held bound.  With my right hand I pointed to one of the strange figures below, "Kill."  At the feet of my target the silt erupted and engulfed him.  More watery tentacles rose from the ocean depths.

Spells beat at my defenses, forcing my focus to defense.  Rose blasted watery tentacles apart with each incantation, and Creep cursed as if having the worse day of his life.  His fire spells fizzled and popped against deluges of water and his demonic fire spirits had been washed away.  Rain started to fall from black clouds that blotted out the night.  Lightning flashed in the distance and the sea bubbled and churned as the nightmarish island rose, reaching toward the inky sky.

From out of the hellish surf nine figures slipped up and seized another of the strange dancers, dragging the bizarre form beneath the waves.  Before me a tentacle of water collapsed and rained down on the unholy land below.

Lightning flashed, and my vision went white.  I heard stone crack and stared through retinal sparks and a brilliant afterimage.  Lightning had struck one of the spires, cracking its surface.  Green flesh pulsed behind the cracks, and a pink fluid oozed from the wounded rock.  A barbed quill erupted from a stone sucker just centimeters below the lightning strike.

"It is waking up." Rose said ominously.

I weathered a barrage of spells that hammered at my defenses.  My nose bled from the strain of holding back violent magic.  Creep continued to hurl down fire to no effect.  Once again, nine figures slipped out of the sea and seized another enemy.  I felt the pressure on my defenses lessen and another watery tentacle vanished.

"Keep it up baby-girl, we can win this!" I tried to sound encouraging but the strain I was under made my words come out in a desperate expulsion of air.  Lightning danced on the sea all around us and thunder roared.  Below us the remaining figures shouted and flung spells and screams up at us.

Creep was grabbed by watery tentacle, torn from the sky, and disappeared beneath the bubbling sea.

Lily appeared next to me, her angelic form humming with power.  My girls tore the sky asunder, hurling down lighting at the figures below.  In those flashes of brilliance and death I saw another figure dragged under the waves by Jazz and the team.  A glob of putrid green gel flew up and struck Lily's left wing.  She screamed in pain and fell from the sky, bouncing off stone to lay face down in the silt. Rose and I dropped toward her.

I landed in knee-deep salt water. The smell of sulfur and brine was sickening.  Behind me Rose saw to her sister while before me the son-of-a-slitch that hurt her gave off a gurgling laugh.  I threw a bolt of mana energy at him, which he deflected skyward. I heard curses and bits of ritual verse erupt from outside the ring of stone tentacles.  The magician before me spat out a word that hurt my ears to hear.  Another green glob of gel was flung through the air, this time streaking toward me.  It hit my spell defenses and blew through them, splattering across my wet suit.  It ate through almost instantly burning through and pitting my dive armor beneath it.  I felt burns on my body and screamed in pain, then fell into the stinking muck. I felt the island trembling beneath me.

Rose abandoned Lily to stand at my side.  Another green glob streaked toward me, impacting her spell defenses and sloughing off into the brine.  The gurgling laugh continued as Rose fought back another spell, her defenses straining with each impact.  I looked up into alien eyes, rows of shark-like teeth and a neck covered in gill-flaps.  Rose was hammered to the ground beside me.

"Girls, go home."  I looked up at the monster before me and felt certain I was about to die.  Rose and Lily vanished with anguished cries. I heard a gurgling sound in that strange creature's throat and looked up, determined to die with some quiet dignity.

I saw Creep's hand over the creature's mouth.  A twenty centimeter knife in his other hand was sawing through its neck.  "Hey, Machine.  Get in the fight omae." The slimy bastard was smiling with barely restrained laughter.  "That's it big guy, just let it happen."

I heard burps of gunfire and gurgling screams all around me.  I left Creep to his handiwork and joined the others.


October 3rd, 2060

0300 hours, operational area local time

None of the strange dancing magicians survived the assault. They were human-like but with terrifyingly monstrous features.  The gills, strange eyes, webbed fingers and other inhuman traits marked them as something strait out of a sailor's nightmare.

The island continued to rise, trembling and shifting as the seafloor lifted.  The muck around the stone tentacles and beak washing away in the storm to reveal a monstrous beast carved from a great piece of living stone.  Fleshy bits were exposed and pink bloody fluids seeped from cracks and breaks in the rock. We planted charges around tentacles, retrieved the bodies of the RV Sally Ride crewmen from the beak and discovered a dark well beneath their corpses that vanished into inky darkness.  Jazz primed and lowered charges down the hole.

I called Rose and Lily back to me.  They helped heal the injured, as well as healed the acid burns that had dotted my torso.

We escaped the island and detonated the charged from five hundred meters out.  The sea continued to churn in the storm, lighting flashed and the stone tentacles shattered. Pink foam bubbled up on the new beach as the island continued to thrust itself skyward.

The island is more than two kilometers in diameter and roughly oval in shape.  The highest point stretches some two hundred meters above the sea and is ringed by eight stumps of stone.   A hole, not unlike a lava tube, stretches down into darkness from the center of that ring.  We sent in a pair of bumblebee drones but lost signal almost instantly. We never recovered those drones.

The storm broke at dawn.  The CFS Coast Guard radioed out for an update on the status of the RV Sally Ride. We left that complication to Control.  Simon picked up a radio signal coming from the island which we triangulated the source of and discovered a sealed tube weighted with iron.  Inside the tube was a transmitter and battery pack, along with a hand written message sealed in a mylar bag.  I opened the bag and read it, then read it a second time in disbelief.

I sealed the bag and added it to a case containing a few items we had discovered which held magical auras.  With the CFS Coast Guard still an hour distant, we secured the monstrous bodies of the magicians in body bags, lay them in a pair of inflatable life rafts, and secured them to the mini-sub.  Of the crew of the RV Sally Ride, we placed their corpses in body bags, and lay them on the deck under an additional tarp to keep the heat from further damaging their bodies.

The Peanut came to life, her power cells carrying us the five miles north to rendezvous with her parent ship.  We loaded the corpses, the relics, and sailed north to Seattle.


October 11th, 2060

1300 hours, Seattle Metroplex local time

Aria took Lily and Rose out to shop for Halloween costumes, leaving me with the twins.  Jasmine and Violet giggled as they levitated around the room.  Fussed until I they got their bottles. Burped like drunken sailors and despoiled their diapers before drifting off for an afternoon nap.  Aria sent pics of the costumes Lily and Rose picked out, as well as a picture of a pair of costumes for the twins.  I smiled at the little pea pod outfits the babies would soon be wearing.

I sat in the nursery, my sight open to the astral and listened to my daughters sleep.  The house was quiet, still, and full of warm feelings.  Below me the mana eruption poured out its trickle of power into my basement, awaiting my hand to shape it to my will.  I caught myself nodding off and stood up, steeling myself against the urge to take a lazy nap with the girls.

Aria got home at 1700 hours.  Lily and Rose helped unload the car before it shuffled off to its next pick up.  I had ordered Tai food and it was waiting on the dinner table when they arrived. The twins were playing, sitting in their walkers, shaking small rattles and giggling at each other.  I scooped them up and put them in their high chairs, fitted their little bibs on them, then ate and watched the twins succeed in spreading pureed bananas in their own hair.

We ate, laughed, and had an amazing evening at home. The sound of my daughters laughter chasing away the horror of the previous days. Love is the deepest, and strongest magic.

______________________________________________________________________

Thank you for reading my fan fiction.

I hope you enjoyed this story.
Please do share these tales with others.

That is not dead which can eternally lie ... (Part One: RV Sally Ride)

"To Federated Boeing, the land and mineral rights to the volcanic island that will erupt 301 kilometers due west of Petrolia on October 3, 2060." Dunkelzahn's Will

____________________________________________________________________________



October 2nd, 2060
2217 hours, operational area local time


The ship before us was dark on the water.  The only sounds were waves slapping against her hull and a bubbling noise raising out of the unusually warm waters of the Pacific. The sea was bubbling as gases escaped the surging seafloor below. I swam along the surface, my eyes on the floating ship before me.

Two years prior I had woven several spells into myself.  I had a spell continuously running (via a self-sustaining mana loop, what some magical scholars call 'quickening') which oxygenated my blood and allowed me to effectively breath underwater; a spell that allowed me to see underwater (though it worked by removing the water from my vision so I saw things as if they were floating in air); spells that enhanced my physical strength, speed, and toughness; as well as spells that detected ghouls, vampires, and other less than friendly creatures.  Ahead of me the ship RV Sally Ride, formerly a commissioned vessel of the old U.S. Navy, floated amid algae and a curious school of jellyfish.  When the Navy had been divided between the UCAS and the CAS, RV Sally Ride was sold off to private interests and eventually ended up in the hands of Federated Boeing.

"Machine, I've got no wireless signal from the float.  Sonar is picking up a rapidly rising sea floor and an increase in biological signals in the area." Simon's voice was soft in my ear.  He was whispering in spite of himself being half a kilometer away in the mini-sub.  "Sea floor has movement all over the place.  Likely its the shifting tectonics moving debris along."

I looked down and saw schools of fish, jellyfish and shifting darkness as the sea floor was below the range of my spell enhanced senses.  The water was deep here, and many people had scoffed at the note in Dunkelzahn's will concerning an island he claimed would appear tomorrow.  The sea floor had been charted at 1400 meters a year prior and was measured by sonar sounding at 800 meters just two days ago.  We were there to snoop, collect information, and basically just see what the hell was happening with this island that was rising from the deep right on time for the Big D's prophesy.

"Simon, are you getting any cell signals from the crew?  Or any sub-surface contact for divers or hydrophone?" I was whispering because I was less than fifty meters from the ship and wanted to make certain I wasn't overheard by a surveillance drone or security sensor.  Nothing appeared to be moving on the deck.

"Diving at night isn't too smart unless you've got something to hide." Jazz offered up.

"Nothing.  No engine noise from the Sally Ride.  Her EM signature is almost zero.  I'd be surprised if a toaster were plugged in over there."  Simon sounded certain and the decker had been solid so far.  I would have felt better if Angel had been the one relaying the news but Simon hadn't earned that level of confidence yet.  He was good, there was no doubt about that, but he wasn't in her league.

"Okay, Zero surface and lets get an uplink to Control for this.  Everyone fall back to the mini."  I dove down to about five meters under the surface and kicked my way toward the sub.  Around me the weapon specialists wore thermal dampening wet suits and scuba rigs.  Creep was in the mini-sub as he couldn't swim.

"Copy that.  Surface in two minutes, uplink one minute after that." Zero replied.

"I've got zero surface contacts, nothing subsurface beyond the biologicals and the seafloor churning." Simon called out.

The weapon specialists called out in sequence. All accounted for and no one saw anything other than sea life.  We made contact with the mini sub as it surfaced, taking hand holds to stay together. I took a hand hold next to Taz and waited.

"Uplink is good, strong signal." Simon reported.

"Control this is Machine." I started. "We are on site and have suspiciously little activity.  Vessel appears to have had some form of system failure, no crew have been observed on deck, no signal from vessel.  Sea floor is rising steadily. No sign of other actors. Please advise."

"Please confirm. You say you have no visual on crew?" Samantha Goode's voice was as controlled as ever.  The hint of a question in her voice gave away nothing.

"Affirmative. No contact.  Simon, report sensor results." I replied.

"Uploading last thirty minutes of sensor logs now." Simon answered.

Samantha's voice came back over the comm a moment. "We're receiving your data.  Signal the Sally Ride, see if they need assistance.  If you don't get a reply, board the ship and determine what's going on."

"Received and understood. Simon, give me a channel they can hear."  In the mini-sub Simon was busying himself with sensors and communications while Zero controlled the small vessel.  Creep would be standing by for astral defense and to counter any awakened wildlife we might run afoul of.  I didn't have to wait long.

"Machine, your on Channel 6 at 156.3 megahertz.  Go for broadcast." Simon whispered.

"Sally Ride, Sally Ride this is Captain Charles Thomas of the submarine 'Peanut' do you require assistance?"  I tried to sound as professional as possible but had no idea how sailors communicated to each other.  Beside me Taz shrugged his shoulders and fiddled with his respirator.

Silence greeted me over the channel.

"Sally Ride, Sally Ride this is Captain Charles Thomas of the submarine 'Peanut' do you require assistance?"  I repeated my call and was again greeted by silence.  I muted the channel and switched back to the uplink with Control. "No response from Sally Ride."

"Board vessel, determine what is happening.  Provide assistance as needed, force is authorized for self-defense only." Samantha's reply was reassuring. We were here to snoop, not bloody people up.

"Confirmed.  Simon feed comm to the uplink. Taz, you're with me.  Everyone else, give us one hundred meters of lead then follow in pairs.  Jazz, you're drag."  Taz and I swam out toward the research vessel.  Two hundred thirty-eight feet of ship loomed darkly before us.  Taz and I came within fifty meters and I called out at the top of my lungs. "SALLY RIDE, CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?"

The only response was the sound of water slapping against her hull.

"I don't think they're home." Taz offered.

"We're going up. Don't freak out." I told him.  The water elemental rose from beneath us, lifting us in a column of sea water.  We were five meters above the surface and could see the deck at the bow of the ship. "Sally Ride, permission to come aboard?"  When no one replied I had the elemental deposit Taz and I onto the ship.

"Control, we're on board.  No contact."  I moved up toward the aft end of the ship in the darkness.  No one challenged us.  "ANYONE HERE?" I called out.   Again I was greeted with silence.

The Sally Ride suddenly pitched to starboard and I was thrown off my feet to crash down to the deck.  I saw sea foam splash as the ship righted and smelled a rotten fishy smell mingled with the stench of rotten eggs.

"Machine, the sea floor just buckled up another five meters.  Water temp is up two degrees locally.  I'm seeing a LOT of motion on the sea floor."  Simon sounded surprise.

"Damnit! This ship is right over the hot spot.  Machine, she needs to move." Taz said urgently.

"Machine, this is Control.  Proceed to the bridge, see if you can get her underway."  Samantha's voice was as calm as always. "Be advised, we've notified the CFS Coast Guard and are awaiting their response."

"Understood. Team is still boarding the vessel, we'll see if we can get her moving." I replied.  It took me almost two minutes to reach the bridge.  The exterior door was locked and the plexiglass encompassing the bridge was a mess of impact fractures and cracks.  "Control, are you seeing this?"

"I see it Machine. Proceed with caution." She replied.

"No drek." I thought to myself.  Over the comm I said, "Taz, I need a hand.  Get this door open." I cast my gaze about in the darkness, my spell enhanced sight showed me a barren deck and my team climbing up on the aft diving deck.

Taz put his shoulder to the door, and the door held. "What the hell?" Taz exclaimed.

"Cut it, we don't have time to wonder."  I told him.

Taz took the monomolecular knife from his belt and forced it into the seem of the door.  He sawed against the frame and I heard something snap.  "It's no good Machine. This door is fixed tight." Taz showed me the broken blade of his knife, a look of consternation on his face.

I opened my astral sight and looked at the door. Magic hummed through the door and the surrounding walls.  I saw astral echoes of long tentacles that wrapped around the bridge and struggled against the bulkhead.  The plexi had cracked and splintered under the force but it hadn't failed completely.  The magic on the door was reinforcing the bridge and door and its lock were strong enough to keep us out.

"Control, I'm seeing signs here.  Astral after images of what looks like an attack by a paracritter.  Magic is reinforcing the bulkhead and door. I'm going to crack it now." I raised my hands and began the counterspell.  "Implicata magicae.  Arese ditri su." I watched as the mana woven along the bulkhead and door unraveled.  The plexiglass windows of the bridge collapsed in small shards exposing the control center of the ship.

Taz moved onto the bridge like a shadow. His feet somehow avoiding the fragments of plexiglass that now littered the floor. "Bodies." Taz announced.

"Eyes up and weapons out." Jazz's voice came over the comm instantly.

I followed Taz inside, my boots crunching loudly on the shattered plexi. Taz turned and gave me a questioning look.  "Sorry." I whispered.

There were three bodies on the floor.  One corpse, a woman wearing a Federated Boeing Maritime security force uniform, was bloated and swollen.  Her skin a strange blue green color.  Small puncture wounds were evident on her leg, arm, and face.  Her uniform bore a triangle in gold on her lapels.  Dried blood was caked over her eyes and down her cheeks like old bloody tears.  The other two bodies were ork men, both of whom showed similar injuries.  They were older and had the look of hard working types.

"Control, I've got three deceased on the bridge.  What's the status on Coast Guard?" I watched the corpses carefully, long experience telling me to be mindful of the dead.  Taz stalked around to a terminal station and hit a pair of keys.

"Machine, no update on Coast Guard.  Proceed with caution and search for survivors." Samantha replied.

"No response from the helm." Taz reported.

"Okay, let's link up with the team and see if we can't find someone to clue us in." I waved Taz out ahead of me, keeping my eyes on the corpses as he ghosted out onto the deck.  "Simon, I need intel on this FBM officer, see what you can dig up."

"On it." Simon called back quickly.

Zero's voice joined the conversation. "Machine, the sea floor is rising steadily. I think around dawn or shortly before we'll see rock breaking the surface."

"Understood.  How do we get this ship out of the area and keep it off the rock?  Taz says controls here are offline." I followed Taz down to the next lower deck, my astral sight catching flashes of terror imprinted on the old research ship.  I heard phantom screams and saw after images of the ship shuddering from impacts on its hull.

"Don't know.  Would have to see what was wrong with it." Zero replied.

"Can we tow it?" I asked.

"Not with this mini-sub. Coast guard ship would be able to though." Zero's answer sounded certain. I trusted his judgement and kept my senses open as I scanned the deck.

Bright imprints of terror, currents of hunger and rage, and the echoes of dying men clung to the ship.  I shuddered in spite of myself.  The Sally Ride lurched again though this time I managed to keep my feet.  Sea foam sprayed and the ship rocked perilously.  I grabbed the railing and fixed myself to the deck.  Over the side I saw fish flitting by and jelly fishing pulsing themselves to get away from the stinking bubbles that were rapidly breaking the surface.  A large dark mass was rising, but I couldn't yet make out details.

The Sally Ride shook in the sea like a horse finding its footing but the old ship stayed afloat. I found Jazz stepping through the astral haze and noticed a spot clear of astral echoes.  I walked toward Jazz who opened his mouth to speak but I raised my hand to silence him.  I fixed my senses on the blank spot in the astral, a place free of the undercurrent of fear and violence.  Something or someone had carefully wiped away an impression in the astral.

"Jazz, we may not be alone." I looked him in the eyes and saw grim determination.  "I'll take Taz and see if we can get the helm to respond so we can move the ship.  Split the men into two teams and search for survivors. Don't take any chances though, if they look sick fall back from them and call me."

Jazz and the rest of the team scoured the ship while Taz and I tried to get the power on.  Simon guided us through a series of steps to bring the ship's generator to life and after ten tense minutes we had power.  I heard pumps engage in the lower portion of the ship and prayed we weren't sinking.

"Machine, CFS Coast Guard says they don't have any assets nearby.  Best estimate is three hours for a helicopter flyby and five hours for rescue vessel." Samantha said suddenly. "What is your situation?"

"We have power now.  We've found the three dead in the bridge but none since.  We're searching the vessel as we speak.  Astral echoes lead me to believe that some sort of tentacled para-animal, maybe a giant squid of sorts, attacked the ship." I looked out over the churning sea around me. "One thing stands out though, I've found places around the ship where the astral signatures have been wiped.  Someone didn't want to leave evidence behind."

There was a pregnant pause.  "Understood, Machine. Complete the search of the ship, we're watching your feed.  Call out if you see anything in the astral."

"Understood."  I replied. I watched as Taz worked under Simon's instructions to get the ship's systems booted up.  The ship had an eerie empty feeling to it and the horrific astral impressions clinging to it only reinforced the sensation.

It took twenty minutes for the team to search the ship. "No more bodies. No survivors." Jazz reported.  "Pumps are running as there is a small break just at the waterline.  The crew sealed that section and left the pumps running."

"Keep everyone on deck. Close the hatches going below and lets be ready to jump ship if this gets any worse."  Jazz was moving before my next sentence left my mouth. "Taz, how are we on getting this old girl moving?"

"It's coming along. Maybe ten more minutes if Simon is right."  Taz sounded tense, focused.

"Copy that. Take your time, we've got you covered." I replied. "Creep, get topside and get over here.  If that critter shows up I want more firepower on deck."

"Ugh, okay Machine. I'm on my way."  The slimy little fragger sounded sick.

I watched as Creep floated out from the mini-sub and began to drift toward the ship.  Below I saw the tips of rock formations rising and fish scattering away.  My ear piece clicked and Simon's voice came through.

"I've got a bit on that FBM officer. Darlene Cortez, formerly lieutenant Darlene Cortez of the Confederated American States Navy special weapons unit.  Full magician, classified training I can't get to without a lot more work and divine intervention, big periods of redacted mission time, action on the Aztlan border.  Special weapons and tactics with the Atlanta police until she got a better offer from Federated Boeing.  Basically, she's a badass combat mage with a lot of time in the field."  Simon's information did not fill me with confidence.  The lieutenant was dead, sealed away on the bridge of an empty ship alongside dead shipmates.

"Thanks, Simon. Control, did you get that." My reply sounded somber, even to me.

"Loud and clear, Machine." Samantha replied.


2315 hours, operational area local time

Creep touched down on the deck as the Sally Ride's engines began to come to life.  He looked sea-sick green and swore with every roll of the deck.  "I hate boats." he complained.

"It's a ship, not a boat." I replied.

"What's the difference?"

"I have no idea." I smiled at him as the ship rocked and heaved beneath us.

"I'm really not liking this, Machine." Creep wagged his finger at me for moment, then bent double and vomited across the deck.

The Sally Ride jerked as her engine caught and she began to move under her own power.  I grabbed the rail and watched as the jagged stone became more clearly visible.  Two hundred meters down, strange shapes moved along the rising sea floor.

********

(Continued in Part two)

______________________________________________________________

A little magic

" ... I hate bugs. I always hated them, even as a kid. I think there's just something hardwired, deep in the human brain, that says bugs are wrong somehow. Just looking at them creeps me out. So, naturally, there I was inside the rusting corpse of a factory complex some thirty-five miles outside of the Federal District of Columbia facing down a guy in charge of some bugs bigger than me. ...."  Excerpt from "Crossroads" by the legendary Stephen Kenson (quote attributed to the remarkable character "Tommy Talon")


_____________________________________________________________________________


August 2060


Work was quiet.  I managed to get a lot of reading done and even spent some time in the gym.  I was home every afternoon and spent my evenings enjoying the family life.  The news, however, was far from quiet. There was a big news story out of Boston.  A serial killer, or a copy cat, had emerged and taken many victims.  The shadow community was buzzing with work.


I spent my weekends giving Crank a new tattoo.


It was the first one I had ever done, and stretched the length of his spine (which was damn awkward at times).  I decided to cheat as I am not a great artist, and created the imagery digitally, then had a stencil printed out.  All said, I had about fifty hours of time spent in inking and coloring that piece.


Crank's tattoo followed a formula I had devised. The inks were unusual, being derived from alchemical compounds and distilled with components from certain awakened creatures.  The tattooing needles used were made of a alchemical metals. I commissioned Mike to produce them and he came through with flying colors.  Each needle was used for a different ink, six in all.  Each weekend Crank would come over and I would work on the tattoo while he lay in my basement inside a ritual circle I create specifically for that creation.


Once I had completed the tattoo, I subjected Crank to an hours long ritual where I infused him with a spell that greatly enhanced his reaction speed and reflexes.  The casting went far better than it had when I had cast the spell on myself, years earlier.  As I held the spell in place I took a feather from a living phoenix (that was really hard to come by) and used it to brush an alchemical solution derived from aloe, ginseng, water from a hot springs in Calgary, and powdered jade.  I braided the mana loop with care, fixing it forever to Crank's body and aura.


I took a deep breath as I released my hold on the spell and watched as it continued to hum with power.


"Crank, omae, I think that does it." I told him.


"Sub-zero.  I don't feel much different.  You seem to be speaking slowly though."  Crank got to his knees as he couldn't stand up in my basement due to the height of the ceiling.  "Can we test this?"


"I have something in mind. Put your shirt on and we'll go out in the back yard a moment." I replied.  He and I made our way upstairs where I grabbed a spray bottle Aria used on the houseplants.  "Honey, Crank and I will be out back.  We'll just be a moment."


"Okay, your daughters destroyed their diapers. I'll be a while in here." Aria called back.


I joined Crank outside.


"This is a nice place, Tommy." Crank turned and looked at me.  "Squirt bottle?"


"Yep. I'm going to shoot you with it if I can. You try to get out of the way.  If it works we'll move up to paint balls and assuming that works we'll test using gel rounds if you're up for it." He nodded and my hand blurred up, squeezing the little pump on the squirt bottle and rapidly as I could. Thin lines of water passed through open air as Crank stepped effortlessly from their path.


"Oh, real wiz Tommy!" Crank exclaimed.  He had a big tusky smile that showed off his perfect dental work.


The paintball test went the same way.  Crank easily stepped out of their path and came away clean.  We went to Redmond for the gel round test. We were a few blocks from the Brick Yard when I pulled my heavy pistol and opened fire on my old friend.


He was fast, terrifically fast.  He couldn't outrun bullets but he could outrun my aim for just a while.  My first four shots missed as he reacted to me.  The fifth round struck him in the gut, splattered against his body armor and knocked the big man on his ass.


"Ouch! Damn that hurt!" Crank complained.  "You fraggin' shot me!"


"Yeah, but I missed you the first four times.  That's the important part.  If you had been shooting back, I'd be dead."  I took a moment to load live ammo.  "I think it worked just fine, Crank.  You'll be like that until I die, or you do."


"This is real wiz. Seriously, you could make a fortune doing this." Crank jabbed the air, his motions smooth and faster than I remembered him ever having been.  "It's going to take some getting used to.  This is a big edge, Tommy.  Thanks."


"Thanks for being the first.  Now I've got a few other jobs like this to do in the coming months.  It's tiring work though." I thought about Little Rickie.  "Hopefully it works for other types of spells as well."


"Why wouldn't it?" he asked.


I shrugged, "Magic is funny that way sometimes.  I'll have to see what I can figure out, but this is great.  Don't get careless out there though. I'd hate for all that work to go to waste. Don't forget, let's keep this between us."


Crank smiled down at me. "Oh, I'll be careful. I haven't lived this long to get geeked after I finally have an edge beyond common sense and good looks."


Crank left on his pink scooter.  I watched him as he rode off down the pot-holed street, the spell's aura blending with his own. He would stand out from the astral perspective and I had warned him of as much, but he was faster than I was after that and on the mean streets of Seattle that was an edge no one should underestimate.  I wrapped an invisibility spell around myself, called out to Lily and the two of us flew home.


__________________________________________________________


Thank you for reading my fan fiction.  The quote at the top of the page is from one of my favorite Shadowrun novels, "Crossroads" by the great Stephen Kenson.  The quote is used and cited to the source in compliance with conventional practice.  I do not own, nor do I claim any rights to that copyrighted work.  You can find "Crossroads" on Amazon at the link below.  (Disclosure:  I do participate in the Amazon affiliate program, see statement below).




I have been a big fan of the work of Mr. Kenson for some time and Crossroads and Burning Time are two of my all time favorite books.