John Ringo - Emerald Sea

Donal had a nasty bite in his side but he still drove through the pod of orcas like a killing machine, tearing huge chunks out of their sides, catching fins and flukes and ripping them off to stain the water with crimson.

Chauncey was more methodical. He had caught one of the orcas with both claws and tore at it as it struggled. He didn’t let go until the orca went limp and floated up to the surface, dead or so injured that it could struggle no more.

Joanna was more like Donal, her snakelike head darting through the formation and slashing at any orca that was stupid enough to get in range. One managed to get its teeth in her tail only to find out how well sprung it was; the two-ton orca was spun through the water, raising a wave on the surface for a moment, until he was brought in range of those killer teeth and when they closed the orca fought no more.

As fast as the attack started it was over and the water was filled with dead and dying orcas and mer.

“Oh, God,” Jason said, looking around.

Bill and three of the other mer-warriors were clearly dead, horrible jaw marks on their chests and abdomens, their entrails drifting in the current. Pete was floating at the surface, his tail bitten half-way through. Herzer wasn’t sure that he’d live, even if Daneh had been there. Several of the mer-women were dead as well and others were badly injured.

“Get to land,” Edmund said. “Get them up in the shallows. The ones that are whole all the way out of the water. We’ll… see what we can do for the rest.”

“Grace is all we can give most,” Bast said, wiping her sword on the flank of one of the still-twitching orcas.

“We’ll see,” Edmund replied.

Herzer floated up to one of the injured mer-warriors and grabbed him by the wrist, towing him towards shore. Everyone was dragged shoreward, the injured and the dead. None would be left for the sharks, as the bodies of the orcas were being left.

The sharks and the dragons. Chauncey grabbed the tail of the one he had killed and dragged it along as Donal grabbed another. Joanna got two.

“You’re not going to eat them, too, are you?” Jason asked.

“Why not?” Joanna replied. “They’d eat me if they got a chance.”

“They didn’t eat any of us,” Herzer replied. “We’re all here.”

“Are we?” Edmund said. “That’s a damned good question. Jason?”

“Anyone notice anyone not here?” Jason said. “I never bothered to really get a list.” He looked around and blanched white. “Antja?”

“Elayna,” Bast hissed. “Where’s Elayna?”

By the time they reached the shore it was clear that the two mer-girls were missing.

“Where could they have gone?” Herzer asked. “They would have come out if they hid in the reef.”

“That was why they went for the women, first,” Edmund said. “I thought it was a brilliant tactic. But I bet that they made off with them while we were still fighting, come and gone before anyone noticed.”

“Herman,” Herzer said, ducking under the water. “Did you see Antja or Elayna taken?”

“No,” the delphino responded. “Too fast. None of ours injured.”

“They ignored the delphinos,” Edmund said, shaking his head. “They went for the girls and ignored the delphinos.”

“Why?” Jason shouted. “Why them?”

“Tender mer-girl snacks?” Joanna asked, craning her head up to look around. “I can find them.”

“Me too,” Herzer said, climbing on Chauncey who had just started to rip into his lunch. The wyvern snarled at being kept from his meal but turned to look at Joanna.

“I’m coming,” Bast said, climbing on Joanna. “At least seven whales. Two dragons; Donal’s too hurt to fly. We’ll do.”

“Herzer?” Jason said, looking up at him.

“You take care of your people,” Herzer ground out. “Time for this to end.”

“Oh, we’ll end it,” Joanna replied. “They’re not getting away from me this time.”

The marine sentry at the skipper’s door shook his head as the telltale on the box next to him sprung up.

He didn’t bother to turn, simply knocked quietly on the door behind him.

“Yes,” the skipper said, sticking his head out.

The sentry pointed at the telltale and motioned to the door of the general’s quarters. The marine there was looking at them with a raised eyebrow.

The skipper nodded and walked swiftly and silently down the corridor as a group of marines in armor exited Talbot’s quarters. Moving the marines around without, it was hoped, anyone noticing had been difficult. But with any chance it was about to pay off.

Daneh and Rachel trailed the group. They knew their place and in the front of battle, if it came to battle, was not it.

The skipper started to open the door to the wardroom and then stepped back, letting the marine corporal in charge of the group enter first.

The corporal drew his sword silently and then threw open the door, entering the wardroom and moving to the side to let the rest of the marines in.

Commander Mbeki was at the far end of the room, looking up at a projection of a tall, fair man with black hair. The projection turned to look at the group and snarled, tossing up his hand and throwing a red bolt of power at the skipper in the doorway.

The bolt, however, stopped in midair and faded as the datacube protecting the ship was activated.

“Well,” the projection said, turning to look at Mbeki. “It would seem that your utility is at an end.” He reached out and his hand entered the commander’s chest.

The skipper bellowed in anger, rushing forward and throwing the commander to the ground as the marine threw himself on the projection. But it was nothing but a hologram that faded with a mocking laugh.

Commander Mbeki was already turning blue at whatever the projection had done to him. He grabbed the skipper’s arm and shook his head.

“Why?” Chang ground out. “You were my friend .”

“Wife,” Mbeki said. “Sharon. Ropasa. Bastards…” His eyes widened in pain and then his head rolled back.

“I’d guess that the projection crushed his aorta,” Daneh said, clinically. “Blue tongue and fingertips. Maybe introduced cyanide but why do that when you can just give him a heart attack.”

“He’d always wondered what happened to Sharon, after the Fall,” Chang said, lowering the body of the XO to the deck. “She was in Italia visiting the museums when the Fall hit. He’d hoped… Damn them.”

“Yes,” Daneh said, thinking her own thoughts, of her own memories. And nightmares. “Damn them all to hell.”

“What now?” Rachel asked.

“Find the mer,” Chang said. “Keep fighting. Until New Destiny is destroyed or we are.”

Antja had discovered that punching was useless against the orca and that the grip of his pectoral fins was impossible to break. So she had spent the entire wild ride alternately fuming and terrified.

Shanol and one of the other orca males had left the fight almost immediately. Antja couldn’t believe that they had attacked the group just to steal two mer-girls, but it was starting to look as if that was exactly what had happened.

“Okay, I give up,” Elayna said. “Why are we here?”

“I don’t answer existential questions,” Shanol said with a ping of mocking laughter.

“Okay, to be more precise, why have you kidnapped us?” Antja snarled.

“I didn’t think we could win,” Shanol answered, truthfully. “So I had to ask myself, what was the worst thing I could do to Herzer and Jason, who are the two people I’ve come to hate the most in this world.”

“And kidnapping us is the answer?” Antja asked.

“Oh, it’s more complex than that,” the orca said. “You’re Jason’s girlfriend and Elayna is Herzer’s.”