Michael Siemsen - Exigency

Aether flipped through optics, spotting a layer of discarded seashells and bones fanning out across the sand from the gap. Beyond the conical plant, her fone highlighted the distinctive outline of a one-armed Seekapock, eleven meters in from the entrance, lounging inside a small alcove in the rock, legs dangled over the edge. Aether could see no one else anywhere near the area.

“You can go,” Aether told the lingering guide. She pointed farther down the beach, the opposite direction of the EV. “That way.”

“Yes,” she said, and traipsed off.

“Lethal or non?” Qin asked as he readied his MW.

“Non, but put it away. We’re not here for a fight. We’re here to try and avoid creating enemies in our new home.”

“ We? … We’re not! They are! Don’t you think it’s a little late?”

“Obviously, I don’t. Put it away.”

Qin sighed and holstered the weapon, though kept his hand resting on it.

Aether walked to the dark gap, crunching over shells and bones. “Eeahso? It’s Aether and Qin of the Orange People. May we speak with you?”

A brief pause. In thermag view, Aether saw Eeahso’s shape slowly rise in the alcove, legs drawing up from where they’d hung.

Aether took one step into the gap, opting for candor. “We killed Skinny. Skinny is dead.” Still no reply. She could see one of Eeahso’s arms reach above to another, deeper ledge in the rock, returning with a thick club. “You can put the weapon down. We aren’t here to hurt you. When we refused to help attack more Threck, Skinny killed one of our people, then tried to order us to come help kill you.” Aether didn’t bother with the gestures Howard the Threck was demonstrating as Eeahso couldn’t see her from around the passage’s bend. She hoped the message was still clear enough.

She watched Eeahso’s shape discard the club, climb down from the nook, and walk cautiously to the edge of the cone plant. One eye and arm end appeared. “You kill Skinny?”

“Yes. We refused to be involved with anymore killing. We stopped Skinny from coming to kill you.”

Eeahso emerged a little farther, both of her eyes and siphons now visible. “You avenged death of Orange Person.”

“That too.”

“And what you want from me in return?”

“Only peace,” Aether said, taking another step forward, her hands outstretched at her sides. “We’re now leaving your beach and going to our own Orange People camp, far away.”

Eeahso moved the rest of the way out from behind the bend. “Far from Threck?”

“Far from everything.”

“Take me with you?”

“Uh…” Aether stammered aloud.

“Say what?” Qin said. “Is he asking if we planned to, or asking if he can?”

Eeahso went on, “Threck are coming. They care nothing for Seekapock, but they will see me dead for this. They will never stop hunting me.”

Qin murmured, “Then why the hell would we want him with us?”

Aether pushed away her knee-jerk rejection of the idea and considered for a moment. She had questions. “You say the Threck don’t care about Seekapock, but they know of you?”

“Yes. I’ve always limited the raids on Threck resources to ensure they didn’t escalate from mere annoyances to intolerable harassment.”

“Your speech sounds to be improving,” Aether said.

“I speak to the level of the listener,” Eeahso replied. “Orange People clearly have an impeccable handle on City dialect.”

“No insult intended toward your people, but you seem much more intelligent than the others.”

“That’s because they’re not my people,” Eeahso said. “They’re Seekapock. I am Threck.”

Warm wind belted Aether’s chest and neck, circulating into her helmet, around her sides and back, drying her sweat as her half-open suit flapped in the salty torrent. Beneath her skimmer, early morning swells and whitecaps zipped by in streaks. Yesterday, after streaking violently across the sky, her EV had drifted down and landed on this water—not far from this spot—with an anticlimactic clunk. She hadn’t even seen a full day here, but she’d already lost one of her babies.

To her left, across 5K of open sea, Threck City’s tower appeared as a misty, dreamlike painting. Within those walls lived people who could potentially help save her three loves beyond her reach. But why would the Threck possibly assist after the previous night’s atrocities? And without their aid, what was the backup plan for rescuing Ish, John, and Minnie?

Aether glanced at the transparent floor panel behind her. Eeahso was still losing it—siphons pressed up, fogging the hatch, as tightly confined tentacles writhed around the corners. She looked like an octopus crammed in an ill-fitting aquarium.

You said you wanted to come , Aether snarled inside. You who created Skinny the monster .

A tone sounded from the skimmer’s panel.

SP: 110 – DTD: 5K – ETA: 2:58

ALERTS: Direct Connect request from Pablo.

The instant they’d entered range… Pablo must have setup a constant ping. Aether accepted.

Qin’s voice in her ear, “DC from Pablo.”

“Yup, got it too. Let me answer.”

She sent Pablo an M:

AETHER: Team inbound to rally point. < 3 mins. We have a casualty and a “guest.”

PABLO: Got it. Prepping for trauma inbound.

PABLO: Who? And what/how?

PABLO: As many details as you can provide.

AETHER: Angela. No prep req. We lost her.

PABLO: Just get here fast.

PABLO: How long flat vitals?

AETHER: No, sweetie. She’s really gone. I’m sorry.

AETHER: < 2 mins.

Aether gazed to her right. Qin stood at the other skimmer’s helm. At Qin’s feet, she could see only Tom’s legs extending out from behind the curved, opaque windshield. Angela’s body sat on the opposite side of Qin, out of view. Tom had wanted to sit with her, but the skimmer would’ve struggled with balance. Aether felt as though Tom’s anguish was reaching out through the air between them, breaching her flesh, and wrapping around her already-crushed heart, squeezing the last bits of life from it.

PABLO: Tom?

AETHER: Shattered of course. Residual shock, imminent guilt, rage. He’s going to need you, okay? We can’t lose him too.

PABLO: Yeah

PABLO: And I’m here for you, too.

Aether clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes shut—another shot behind the ribs. She knew what she was trying to do with her feelings, and she knew it was typical behavior—especially for a shrink—but it was a grueling fight to discard the sudden misguided anger toward Pablo.

She drove past the pain and hammered out a scratchnote.

He didn’t create my feelings by acknowledging them.

She read each word and swiped it to the archive.

A deep breath. The camp in view. Descent. Touchdown. Pablo’s face, Zisa’s tears and snot, Eeahso whining about the flight, Tom’s daggers in return.

“Why’d we have to bring it?” Seething, Tom stepped right up to Eeahso. Rage had definitely taken shock’s place.

“Step away, Tom,” Aether said, moving between him and the stumbling Eeahso. “Help with Angela.” Saying her name worked. Tom’s face flinched as if a housefly had grazed his nose. “Go on, sweetie. Let me handle this.”

He complied, his eyes once more glassy as they rolled toward Pablo’s outstretched arm.

“Come on, man,” Pablo said as they walked away. “Let’s take care of her… figure out everything she would’ve wanted.”