Chapter 18 #2
He stopped in the doorway, and his little crab body curved in on itself. "I was here, Ellie. I was one of the droids who helped all of them. I saw what they created, and it was terrifying to look upon. Nothing like that could have lived long. None of them."
Ellie frowned but then spun around. "Wait, the clothing."
"I will not stay in that haunted place any longer."
"You don't have to."
She didn't care if she was alone with the body. After all, there wasn't anything left. But she intended to read every entry in the diary because no one would have left this tablet lying next to them if they didn't expect someone to read it.
Rummaging through the woman's wardrobe, Ellie found a few pieces of clothing that were, for some reason, vacuum sealed.
They smelled a little odd when she ripped them open, but the pale green blouse and simple long denim skirt happened to be in perfect condition.
Whoever this woman had been, she had good taste in the preservation of clothing.
Perhaps she'd known someone like Ellie would wander in here someday and really appreciate the clothes.
She stripped, changed into the outfit quickly, and then headed back into the main room. "Pilot, it seems like some of the experiments were viable. 327 and 411 seem to be the ones that they were most focused on. How do we find out more information about those beings?"
A deep voice interrupted her, rumbling like the depths of the sea. "You don't."
She startled, looking at Proteus, who had somehow entered the facility without her hearing him. "Why not?"
"They are not our current focus."
"Well, what is the current focus? You haven't told me anything about why I'm here or what I'm doing."
He tilted his head to the side. "I thought you were a doll. Not a real person. Someone for me to order around and who would do what I said without asking why?"
Those were her words, thrown right back at her.
She had really said all that. But things had changed, she supposed.
She'd been living outside of that pod, using her body, working with the two of them.
She'd been learning how to be a real person.
He'd been the one who wanted her to choose what food she liked, and now she had real clothing on.
Not the same outfit she'd worn her entire life.
This was... intoxicating. Making choices. Thinking for herself. Learning and growing and changing into someone new who had her own thoughts and feelings and opinions.
Taking a deep breath, she hugged the tablet to her chest and said, "What if I want to be more than that?"
"Then I will happily support it." Proteus lifted himself out of the water, a splash of liquid flooding across the floor and clearing much of the sand that had already blown across her hard work in keeping it clean.
"But we cannot focus on what these scientists were working on creating. They did not succeed."
"Are you certain of that?" She looked back at the tablet, frowning once more. "Her notes make it seem like… like... 411 might have been alive when she died. And it seemed to test high on all the aptitude tests and learning skills. I don't know if 411 was the only one of its kind."
"They only made singles of the splices. They didn't want to risk the chance for them to reproduce without knowing what genetic qualities they had.
" Proteus reached for the tablet and set it aside.
"Right now, you and I are going to focus on convincing all those who are actually alive to worship me once more.
Only then, once I know that the undine are under my thumb, will I look at what the humans did while I was gone. "
She rubbed her face. "But if there are still humans in bunkers beneath the sand, surely they are still working on this plan?"
"If they are, then it is not our problem.
" Proteus framed her face with his hands, forcing her to look at him and ground herself in the reality that was right in front of her.
"We are going to work on one thing at a time.
First, we will find those whom we know will help us.
We find the people who have consistently proven themselves to be on our side.
We will show them that a god is amongst them once again, and that will give them the courage they need when we reach out to any who might still be alive on land.
Whatever lives here, human or otherwise, will not want its resources stolen by someone who could have stayed in the sea. "
"Then why are you dragging them out of the waves?" she asked.
His eyes softened. "That was always the plan, Ellie.
I did not promise those ancient people who worshipped me that they would live in harmony with the humans while more and more resources from the sea were depleted.
I promised that I would allow the humans to live under the sea until I could fix their home.
You and your people were refugees. They were never meant to be neighbors. "
Suddenly, it all made sense.
"You're going to fix Above," she whispered. "How?"
"All in due time. And if I cannot fix it, then those who remained here were supposed to find a way for their people to live here.
" He released her and turned his attention back to the channels above their heads where he and his people had once swum.
"It is time for the humans to move out of the sea, Sisu. Once and for all."