Murray Leinster - Creatures of the Abyss

The beast splashed back into the sea, and the wave of its descent swept over the deck of La Rubia. The fishing boat nearly capsized. But the monster had not escaped the anguish of its wounds. It fought the injured spots as though an enemy still gnawed there. It was a struggling madness in the sea.

The Esperance swung to approach the half-sunken trawler, and Terry kept the searchlight on the turmoil. The beast knew panic. It was wounded, and the abyss is not a place where the weak or wounded can long survive. Its fellows would be coming…

They did. Something enormous moved swiftly under the sea toward the wounded monster. It could be seen by the phosphorescence its motion created, as it approached the surface. There was a jar, a jolt. Some part of it actually touched the Esperance’s keel. The huge monster moved ahead, but a trailing tentacle flicked up to what it had touched a moment before.

The ugly tentacle trailed over the yacht’s rail. The rail shattered. The forecastle hatch was wiped out. The bowsprit became mere debris which dangled foolishly from the standing rigging.

The Esperance bucked wildly at this fleeting contact. Nick fired a bazooka-shell, but it missed. Holding fast, Davis flung a grenade. It detonated uselessly. It was then that Deirdre screamed.

Terry froze for an instant. There had simply been no time for him to think that Deirdre might be aboard. It was inexcusable, but nothing could be done now.

Tony had been knocked overside by the shock of the contact with the giant, and was swimming desperately trying to follow the yacht and climb back on board. Terry flashed the searchlight about. He found Tony, splashing. The Esperance swung in her own length while Terry kept the searchlight beam focused. More shrieks came from La Rubia. Davis threw a rope and Tony caught it. They hauled him aboard, and the Esperance turned again to pluck away the trawler’s crewmen.

There were unbelievable splashings off to port. Terry flung the lightbeam in that direction. It fell upon unimaginable conflict. The monster that had passed under the yacht now battled the wounded squid. They fought on the surface, horribly. A maze of intertwining tentacles glistened in the light, and their revolting bodies appeared now and again as the battered creature fought to protect itself, and the other to devour. Other enormous squids came hurrying to the scene. They flung themselves into the gruesome fight, tearing at the dying monster and at each other. There were still others on the way…

The sea resounded with desperate mooing sounds.

The Esperance bumped against La Rubia. Frantic, hysterically frightened men clambered up from the deck of the sinking trawler to the yacht. As soon as they were aboard they implored their rescuers to head for land, immediately.

“Get ’em all off!” bellowed Terry, in command by simple virtue of having clear ideas of what had to be done. “Get ’em all off!”

The stout skipper of La Rubia jumped over the yacht’s rail. Without orders, the yacht’s engine bellowed. The Esperance turned toward the shore, which now seemed very far away.

Something splashed to starboard. The sea glowed all around it. Terry poured the pain-sound exactly in that direction. The monster went into convulsions. The yacht swerved away to keep its distance. She raced on, past the spot where the giant flailed its tentacles insanely about. It mooed.

The Esperance raced at full speed toward the island. About a mile ahead, the surf roared and foamed on the coral reef almost awash.

Back at the scene of the battle of monsters, there was a sudden break in the conflict. One of the wounded giants broke free. It may have been the one the Esperance had first attacked; perhaps it was another, which might have been partly devoured while still fighting.

In any case, one of them broke loose and fled, with the hellish pack after it. It is the instinct of squids, if injured, to try to find some submarine cavern in which to hide. The monster dived, and the others pursued it.

There was no opening in the reef barrier—not underwater. But there was an opening on the surface. The crippled beast had to find a refuge, or be torn to bits. It may have been guided by instinct, or perhaps the current flowing into or out of the lagoon furnished the clue. In any case, the fleeing creature darted crazily into the channel used by the Esperance for passage. For alittle way, it proceeded underwater. Then it grounded itself. Hopelessly.

And the pursuing pack arrived.

The sight from the Esperance’s deck was straight out of the worst possible nightmare. Glistening serpentine tentacles writhed and flailed the seas. They tore the swells to froth. The pursuers had flung themselves savagely upon the helpless one. The gap in the reef was closed by the battling giants. They slavered. They gripped. They tore. They rent each other. …

Terry saw a tentacle as thick as a barrel which had been haggled half through and dangled futilely as its stump still tried to fight.

And more giants came. Terry shouted, and the Esperance turned. He could see large patches of phosphorescence under the surface. And suddenly, he noticed that afew of them had swerved toward the Esperance. As they approached the sound-horn stung them. They went into convulsive struggling, as the sound played upon them, and they passed the Esperance by.

Davis found Terry beside the sound-weapon’s controls, watching the sea with desperate intensity.

“Listen,” said Davis fiercely, “we’re out at sea and we can’t get back into the lagoon! We’d better get away from here!”

“Across deep water?” demanded Terry. “That dangerous foam can come up from deep water, but maybe not from shallow water. We’ve got to stay close to the reef until the flattop comes and bombs these creatures—if it will ever come!”

Davis made a helpless gesture. Terry said crisply, “Get the ’copter to hang over the reef and report on the fighting there. Tell it to report to the flattop. They may not believe us, but they may send a plane anyway. And if the ships come, they’ll have to believe about the foam! Tell them to listen for it underwater. They’ve got sonar gear.”

Davis stumbled away. Presently, the dark figure of Nick lowered himself through what had been the forecastle hatch. Davis followed him.

Deirdre came over to Terry.

“Terry …”

“I’m going to beat in the heads,” said Terry, “of those idiots who came after your father and me without throwing you on the wharf first!”

“They’d have wasted precious time,” said Deirdre calmly. “I wouldn’t have let them. Do you think I want to be ashore when you… ”

There was the faintest of palings of the horizon to the east. Terry said grimly, “I’m going to try to find a passage through the surf, to get you ashore. I’m keeping the Esperance in shallow water—inside the hundred-fathom line—but I don’t trust it. Certainly I don’t trust aship to make you safer!”

“It’s going to be daybreak soon,” she protested. “Then…”

“Then we won’t be able to see what goes on underwater,” he told her. “Those … creatures down below are smart!”

There was a racketing, rumbling roar from the island. A light rose above the tree-tops. Presently a parachute-flare lit up. Then there was another, as if the men in the helicopter did not believe what they saw the first time.

“Terry,” said Deirdre shakily, “I’m… glad we found each other, no matter what happens…”

Davis came up from below.

“The flattop’s only a few miles away. They’re now proceeding at top speed. The mine layer’s following. They’ll be here by sunrise.”