D. MacHale - The Lost City of Faar

I got both water sleds and rested them down in the sand between our skimmers. A few moments later, Spader joined me.

“It was snappy-do,” he announced. “Covers came right off. All that’s left is for us to drop off our gifts.”

“Tell me exactly what to do,” I said.

Spader pointed up at the hull. “Right near the stern you’ll see a big round opening. I left the cover hanging from it so you wouldn’t miss. There’s two of ‘em. I’ll take the one on the far side of the keel. All you have to do is bring the skimmer right up to the mouth, hit the throttle, and let her go. Soon as it’s on the way, meet me right back here. I’ll set off the flare, and we’ll have a leisurely water sled ride back to Grallion while Press and Yenza start the natty-do topside.”

“Got it,” I said. It didn’t sound all that hard.

“Then let’s be heroes,” said Spader, and hit the throttle of his skimmer.

He didn’t speed to the surface; he traveled with more caution. Now was not the time to get cocky and make a mistake. I powered up and ascended just as cautiously. I kept looking up at the dark hull as I grew closer, expecting some alarm to sound and to have the raiders start firing their water cannons down at us. As long as we stayed directly under, we stood a good chance of pulling this off.

It only took a few seconds for us to reach the ship. A steady hum came from its engines. I glanced to Spader. He pointed up at the hull. I looked, and sure enough, there it was. There was a round opening about six feet in diameter with a metal cover hanging below it. The intake port wasn’t flush with the hull, it was perpendicular to it. The metal cover that hung from the opening had narrow slits to let water in and debris out. Now that the cover was off, anything could get stuck inside and we were riding two very big pieces of debris. I was beginning to think this would work.

Spader and I now had to separate. He gave me a thumbs up sign — a Second Earth gesture he picked up from me — and glided his skimmer across the keel to the far side of the ship and the other intake port.

Now came the most critical part of the operation. I carefully guided my skimmer up toward the open port. The opening wasn’t much bigger than the width of the skimmer, pontoon to pontoon, so I had to make sure the whole vehicle got inside. I also didn’t want to bang the skimmer against the hull because that might alert someone that predators were lurking below. I carefully used the throttle to maneuver the craft into position. I had to bring it right up under the hull, then move parallel with the hull into the intake port. It was tricky, but I soon had the entire skimmer resting inside the port. The hard part was over. I was almost there. All I had to do was hit the throttle.

But I never got the chance.

That’s because the ship came to life. The engines that had been idling quietly suddenly roared. I guessed the twenty minutes were over. The raiders were getting ready to fire on Grallion. The noise grew deafening, but worse than that, I felt a rush of water and realized with horror that I was being sucked into the intake port! ThePursuitwas drawing in water for power and ammunition — and I was well within sucking range! The force of the intake pulled me into the opening. In seconds I would be splatter. There was nothing to grab on to. I was going in.

That’s when a strange thing happened that I still can’t explain. Even as I think back to what happened, it doesn’t make sense. It felt like someone seized me by the hand and pulled me out far enough to grab on to the edge of the intake port. I wrapped my fingers around the lip then struggled to bring my other hand forward and grab on as well. I looked up, expecting to see Spader there, but he wasn’t there. Whoever had saved me was gone.

Did I say saved? I wasn’t saved yet. I held on to the lip of the intake port with the tips of my fingers. My entire body was still inside the tube leading into the ship. The force of the water grew stronger. I didn’t have the strength to pull myself forward. I tried to find something with my feet to push off of, but the inside of the tube was smooth. I wasn’t going to last much longer.

That’s when I realized that the force of the intake pump wasn’t just pulling on me, it was pulling at my skimmer, too. There was still hope! If I could hold on long enough, the skimmer would be sucked into the engine and jam it up just as if I had sent it in myself. All I had to do was hang on. But I didn’t know how long I would last. It was torture. The only thing keeping me from being hamburger were the tips of my fingers. I watched as the skimmer slowly moved past me, headed deeper into the ship. It was taking too long. I wasn’t going to be able to hang on much longer. The force of the water grew stronger, and the skimmer moved faster. But that meant it was even tougher to hold on. I screamed. Why not? Nobody could hear me over the roar of the engines.

My fingers had gone numb. I was done. Like a fiendish hungry beast, the intake pump finally won the battle. I lost my grip. I flew in toward the engine, knowing I was seconds away from death. I could only hope that it wouldn’t hurt too much.

But an instant later I heard a horrifying grinding sound, and the pull of water stopped. The skimmer had been sucked into the engine! Spader’s plan worked. Yes! I instantly kicked my fins and swam out of that hole as fast as I possibly could. I blasted out into open water and shot down toward the bottom, kicking for all I was worth.

Spader was already there, waiting for me. I was totally out of breath and probably looked as terrified as I felt.

“What kept you?” asked Spader calmly.

I wanted to scream that I was nearly sucked into the engine, but figured it could wait until later.

“Did you do it?” I yelled.

“Of course,” was Spader’s confident answer.

“Then shoot the flare!” I ordered.

He pointed the gun topside and fired. A screaming bright arc of light blasted from the pistol and shot toward the surface leaving a bright trail of light behind it. I looked up to see that the missile broke the surface and continued on into the sky. We had done it. We had crippled Saint Dane and thePursuitand opened the door for Yenza and the aquaneers to defend Grallion.

But we had done something else, too.

A few seconds later I saw four splashes next to the ship. Four divers had just hit the water, and they were coming after us. Yeah, you guessed it. The raiders saw our flare.

“Uh-oh,” said Spader. “Hadn’t thought of that.”

“We can’t get back to Grallion,” I said. “They’ll get us for sure.”

“Then let’s give ‘em a chase,” said Spader as he grabbed his water sled.

We both powered up and sped off along the ocean floor headed for… I didn’t know where. We flew over the bottom, inches from the coral, looking for a place to hide. It was a good thing that Spader and I had played all those games underwater, because my skills at handling the water sled were pretty good. Without slowing down, I looked back and saw the four raiders were right after us. They had water sleds too. I wondered if one of them was Saint Dane.

As we flew along the ocean bottom something caught my eye off to our right. Something was swimming alongside us, shadowing us. I only caught a quick glimpse because whatever it was, it darted below the coral. But what I saw didn’t make sense. It couldn’t have been a person because it was moving too fast. It might have been a big fish, maybe even a quig, but quigs were gray and black. This thing was green, like the water. Weird.

“The kelp!” shouted Spader.

I forgot about my strange vision and looked ahead to see the beginnings of the tangle of red sea kelp that grew from the coral reef and stretched up to the surface. If we could get into that dense jungle, we might have a chance of losing the raiders.