John Ringo - East of the Sun, West of the Moon

“Now?” Herzer asked.

“NOW!”

Herzer nodded his head and took Megan by the arm. The ship was in virtual free-fall, anyway, so picking her up wasn’t that hard.

“What are you doing?” Megan shouted as the shield around them failed and the wind hit full force.

“Saving your life,” Herzer muttered. He swung her back and forth for a moment and then threw her as hard as he could towards the rear of the ship.

As soon as Megan hit the vortex of wind around the ship, she curled into a ball, fighting to keep control over the power fields. She formed a field around herself and Herzer to reduce the buffeting and keep a bubble of breathable air. She could feel Herzer, now, and he was nearby.

“Spread eagle!” Herzer shouted, tracking towards the falling councilwoman. “Megan, damnit, listen to me! Spread eagle !”

Megan clamped into a tighter ball at his words, panicking at the demanding tone.

“Leave me alone!” she shouted over the screaming winds. She was being buffeted by the track of the monstrous ship, but even more so by dark memories.

“Megan,” Herzer yelled, fighting his way through the turbulence to approach her. He could feel the support field she had up, slowing themselves and the ship as much as she could. And there was a protection field that was, presumably, concentrating oxygen. They were still above forty thousand feet, at least, and he shouldn’t have been able to breathe. But with her in a ball, she was falling faster than she had to. “Spread your arms and legs,” he shouted. “It’ll slow you down!”

Megan gritted her teeth and threw her arms and legs out, sharply. She had been spinning over and over in her ball but this left her stable for the first time. And looking up. It felt very much like being in a position to accept Paul Bowman, who almost always did it missionary style.

“There,” she yelled, looking over at Herzer who was in much the same position but facing down and about five meters away and above her. “Are you satisfied?”

“Eminently,” Herzer yelled, grinning playfully. “Nice free-fall we’re having, don’t you think?”

They’d drifted away from the ship about fifty meters, but it was still far too close. And at the speed they were falling, hitting the water would be terminal.

“Megan,” Herzer said. “You have to speed us up. Make us fall faster .”

“Are you crazy?” Megan shouted back.

“No, I’m not,” Herzer said, tracking over to hover by her. “We need to get down fast, then slow us just before we hit the water. We need to hit the water before the ship, or we’ll lose power.”

“You’re right,” Megan shouted. “Again. Hold on.”

Herzer suddenly felt as if an enormous hand had gripped him, pulling him down and to the side. The ship flashed by, seeming to climb upwards like a rocket. Even with the field around him, the wind whipped into his eyes to the point that he had to close them. But through his slitted lids he could see the ocean approaching at blinding speeds.

“How long are you going to hold this?” Herzer asked. He couldn’t even maneuver with the field that was gripping him. He was completely in Megan’s hands.

“Until we’re right down to water level,” Megan shouted. “And I’m steering towards the islands to the north. We’ll still be about sixty klicks out. But that’s better than right by the ship when it crashes!”

The blue water came up fast and Herzer recognized the area as somewhere around the Jama island chain. He could see a volcanic island to the north, but sixty klicks… wasn’t going to be a survivable swim. Not with his prosthetic. And the minute the ship hit, all Megan’s extra power was going to go away.

“Slowing down… now,” Megan shouted as the water approached like an oncoming train.

Herzer again felt that magic hand and they slowed to a near stop, no more than a hundred meters off the water. He looked up and saw the shattered ship still a few thousand meters above them, twisting as it fell through the atmosphere.

“Going down,” Megan said, floating over to face him as they began to gently drift towards the water. “Like a flower pet—” She stopped and blanched as they suddenly sped up.

“The fusion plants just cascade failed!” she shouted. “Lost all power! Hold your nose!”

“It’s a good thing my dad taught me to swim, or you’d have drowned,” Megan said, breast stroking to the north. They didn’t have anything for flotation; it was impossible to get the suits off with the waves from the ship still lapping over them. So they were trying to swim to the islands. And not doing too well.

“Very funny,” Herzer replied tiredly. Swimming with only one hand, wearing a suit that was not particularly buoyant, was difficult to say the least.

“Did I just see a dolphin?” Megan gasped, spitting out a mouthful of water. She kicked up to look around and slid under the water for her troubles.

“Maybe,” Herzer replied. “But wild dolphins usually ignore swimmers.”

“Maybe they’re delphino,” the Key-holder said, hopefully.

Herzer looked around at the vast empty sea and shrugged.

“What’s the chance of that?” he said. He felt something brush his leg and decided not to mention it to Megan. He’d hated sharks ever since a bull shark had nearly made him a part of the food chain in Bimi. There was another brush and then a head covered by black hair popped up out of the waves.

Mer Captain Elayna Farswimmer flipped her hair back, took a breath of air and blasted the water out of the slits in the side of her lungs, creating a cloud of bubbles.

“I told you to stick with me,” she said, grabbing both of the failing swimmers, her powerful mermaid tail sculling back and forth lightly to support them. “You get involved with strange women and bad things happen.”

“ Another old girlfriend?” Megan said, laughing in relief. “How many are there?”

“How’d you find us?” Herzer asked, ignoring the jibe.

“Queen Sheida called me just before the Net crashed,” Elayna said. “And I hurried over as fast as I could. Of course, I didn’t know exactly where you were going to land. Sorry it took so long.”

“You’re not going to be able to do much by yourself,” Herzer noted. “And I’ve got this whole negative buoyancy problem.”

“Who says I’m by myself?” Elayna replied with a grin as mer heads started popping up and a large delphino slid in to support his weight. “I brought my whole strike company. Lucky for you, we were checking out Port Crater as an expansion to Blackbeard.”

“ You’ve got a company ?” Herzer snapped.

“Of course,” Elayna replied. “Some people can be trusted with the responsibility of command…”

Picture a tropical beach, light waves of aquamarine water washing pink coral sand. Palm trees. Sea breezes carrying the scent of clean water and a hint of ozone and salt. A volcanic cone rises in the background, its sides cloaked by virgin tropical forest and speckled by waterfalls.

Between two of the palm trees a very large hammock sways lightly from side to side. Beside the hammock is a table holding two stemmed goblets whose sides drip condensation. Straws jut from the top of the goblets and they have little parasols, one blue, one pink. Four feet are visible at one end of the hammock, two quite small and ladylike with brightly painted toes pointed up and two rather larger pointed down. The ladylike feet are crossed at the ankles, apparently pinning the larger from the outside.

A small, ladylike hand, with pink painted fingernails, languidly appears over the side of the hammock, fumbles around for a bit and then encounters one of the goblets. By luck, it is the one with the pink parasol. Goblet is lifted. Goblet disappears over the side of the hammock. There is some movement and a sucking sound.