John Ringo - Emerald Sea

“I’m going to kill you,” the orca ground out.

“You keep saying that,” Herzer responded. “I don’t think you’re orca enough. I’ve had much better people than you try to kill me and so far they’ve all failed. By the way, the orca that was after the delphino found out that he really doesn’t like dragons. And as soon as they get done with the ixchitl, they’ll be back for me. I’d suggest you beat feet before they get here.”

“We will,” Shanol said after a moment’s pause. “But we’ll be back. You wait.”

“Breathlessly,” Herzer replied. “I’m so looking forward to it.”

When the orcas were gone he took a deep breath, noticing for the first time a slight constriction on his breathing caused by the mask. He started to panic, his breath coming faster and faster, feeling that he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. Finally, he got a grip on himself, thrusting the dagger into a convenient crack and holding onto the walls as he strove to conquer his breathing. Finally, when he stopped hyperventilating, he started to calm down, as the mask finally had enough time to pump the built-up carbon dioxide from the fight out of the area. Eventually he hung, limp, from his deathlike grip on the rock until Chauncey and a group of worried, spear-wielding mer-men appeared in the entrance and he could finally leave his lonely vigil and swim to the surface to gulp in lungfuls of good, clean, salt-tainted air.

“I warned you about the dragons!” Mosur said.

“I am in no mood for you,” Shanol replied, tightly. The salt water in his wound stung like fire.

“We need to get out of the area,” Shedol said. The orca second in command had returned covered in punctures and slices from Joanna’s attack. “We can’t stay down long enough to keep out of the vision range of those damned dragons.”

“We can just go back,” one of the pod pinged nervously. “There’s too many of them.”

“No,” Shanol replied.

“The ixchitl are calling for us to ambush them,” Shedol noted. “They have a plan.”

“ BE DAMNED TO IXCHITL PLANS! ” the big orca boomed. “No. I have a plan.” He turned to Mosur and ran a wave of sonar over him. “You’re of no use to us now.”

“Good,” Mosur said. “I’m quit of this.”

“And we have a long way to go,” the orca continued, running his sonar over the mer again. “And I’m hungry.”

With the small bone that they used to communicate underwater, it was almost impossible for the mer to scream.

The wind was fair from the northeast and the carrier rolled over a slight sea with a string of islands to its north.

“If this holds we’ll be up to the mer-town by dusk,” Commander Mbeki said.

“Three days late,” the skipper growled. Beating around the edge of the islands had been a slow process, especially since they’d had to negotiate some tricky shallows.

“You can’t control the winds, sir,” the commander replied.

“No, and I can’t control New Destiny, either,” Chang replied. “We lost half a day with that little encounter.”

“Well, so far, so good,” Mbeki said.

“Something in the water to port,” the lookout called.

“I think I should have knocked on some wood,” Mbeki said. “Could you be clearer than ‘something’?” he yelled.

“No, it’s… coming up from the depths. Looks like a…”

Before he could complete the sentence a gigantic tentacle snaked over the side of the ship, smashing the rail and twisting into the ratlines of the mainmast. The ship heeled hard over to port and shuddered as the weight of a giant squid caught it.

“KRAKEN!” the skipper yelled. “Chief Brooks! Axemen! Sound general quarters!”

More and more tentacles slithered over the side of the ship as the beak of the immense squid was revealed. One intelligent eye was just visible below water level and it rolled from side to side, searching for prey. It found it as one of the sailors dashing at the tentacles was caught around the waist and hoisted, screaming, over the side of the ship. The screams were abruptly cut off as the sailor’s head was thrust into the half-meter-wide, parrotlike beak of the squid. It crunched with bitter finality.

Mbeki found himself down on the deck, snatching up the fallen axe of the sailor and hacking at a tentacle that had wrapped itself around the mainmast. The beast was trying to turn the clipper over on its side and its immense weight might just manage it. The body of the beast was half out of the water, its tentacles given free play around the maindeck. It caught another of the crew, one of the marines who were stabbing at the tentacles with boarding pikes, and the marine was dragged over the side, still stabbing at the immense tentacle wrapped around his waist.

Mbeki and Brooks were hacking at the tentacle around the mainmast, in a rhythm with one striking as other raised his axe, when one of the blindly thrashing tentacles wrapped itself around the commander’s ankle and started dragging him towards the edge. He grabbed a stanchion and his arms were nearly ripped from their sockets as he struggled to keep from being taken to the beast’s maw.

Brooks leapt over the half-severed tentacle attached to the mast and hacked downward at the one wrapped around the commander’s ankle. The tentacle had only caught him with a tip and a single blow from the chief severed it to lie flopping on the deck. But even as he turned back to the one around the mast, the ship heaved over on its side and the water came up over the bulwarks as the squid half humped itself onto the ship. Now that it could see what it was doing, its tentacles attacked the axe-wielders and Brooks found himself wrapped in its slimy clutches.

He hacked futilely at the thigh-thick tentacle around his waist but it was to no avail and he found himself in the air, being lowered to the beast’s maw. He saw it open to receive his head just as a jet of fire went past his ear, and impacted squarely on the beast’s mouth.

The tentacle around his waist tightened convulsively and he felt his eyes practically pop out of their sockets as the air was driven from his lungs. The next thing he knew he was flying through the air.

Evan heard the screams from the deck and felt the ship heave over as the big kettle drum on the deck began to pound the signal for battle stations. Without a thought he caught up the flamethrower and started to make his way onto the deck. The ship heeled again and he was thrown against a bulkhead, the flamethrower half thrown over his shoulder catching his arm painfully. He saw the damned rabbit in the corridor, and shouted at him.

“What the hell are you doing just loafing along?” Evan yelled, getting the other strap over his shoulder. “We’ve got a problem!”

“And that means what to me?” the rabbit said, stopping and nibbling at his shoulder. “Me, I’m heading for the lifeboats. You can deal with whatever it is.”

“Damn you,” Evan said, stepping over the rabbit and heading for the companionway.

The rabbit looked after him then pointed a finger at himself.

“I damn thee,” the rabbit muttered. “Shoot, didn’t work.”

Evan stumbled onto the deck to a scene of pandemonium. Tentacles were slithering across the deck in every direction or were already wrapped around pieces of the ship. As he stepped out of the companionway the ship tilted to an alarming degree and water shipped over the side as the kraken hoisted itself up. He saw Chief Brooks chopping at a tentacle that had caught the XO and then the chief was caught by another tentacle and lifted into the air.