Chapter 5 #2
That was how it began, and I’d come down every day since then.
At first, Kaius wouldn’t show himself to me, only talk to me, as though he was testing me out to see if I was a danger to him or his people.
Somehow I passed muster, and eventually he’d trusted me, and we’d shared so much.
It’s hard to describe how intense and open a telepathic communication could be, especially when I could sense his emotions in the link and share with him my own.
We had come to know one another in ways I don’t think anyone beyond ourselves could understand, and it bonded us as though we were halves of a whole.
Eventually, however, I’d needed to involve Cormie, since it was almost impossible to disappear when we were supposed to be working without questions arising.
Perhaps it was the fact that Cormie seemed more like one of his own people than I did, but Kaius had quickly come to trust Cormie as well.
I just had to make sure to purge Cormie’s CPU memory buffer of any hint of Kaius each day before we returned to the ship.
I couldn’t do anything about their human brain and what it remembered, but Cormie was delighted to be included and as eager to know more as I was, and swore they’d never tell anyone.
It was a special secret we shared, the three of us, though Cormie wasn’t interested in Kaius in precisely the same way I was. Which was a good thing.
Kaius, apparently disturbed by my question, pivoted in the water and swam back to me.
I’ve thought about it, he said, reaching out once more to touch my face.
Then he moved even closer, wrapping his arms around me, as I embraced him in turn.
His touch always inflamed me, and I could sense he felt the same way, even if there wasn’t anything more we could really do about it.
Our desire was frustrated by circumstances beyond our control.
I trust you, Kaius told me, touching his forehead to mine in what I’d learned was his particular gesture of affection.
But I cannot extend that trust on behalf of my people.
When your ship departs and they are not feeling wary as they are now, I will approach my father and tell him of you.
I will make him aware that you will return and bring him to meet you when you do.
Then he can make the decision. He is the leader of the Gaian people, and he alone has the authority.
I want to be with you, Michael, and there is a way.
But you must be patient, hard as that is. Our time will come, beloved. I promise.
This was more than he’d told me before, and my heart pounded. A way?
Yes, but I can’t explain it right now. You will have to see for yourself.
For Kaius, I’d wait, despite my eagerness to be with him and to know more.
All right, I’ll wait, I told him. You are worth waiting a lifetime for.
He laughed, and I could not only see the expression on his face, I could feel it rippling from his mind, a wave of relief and happiness. Let’s hope it won’t be quite that long!
I let him feel my own amusement. Okay, then. How about those caves?
He nodded, releasing me and starting to turn away. Then he stopped, eyes wide in shock and horror.
Cormie! Cormie is trapped!
What?!?
Abruptly, Kaius grabbed my hand and began to swim back the way we’d come.
I let myself be pulled through the water, since Kaius could get there far faster than I could.
I glanced down at my wrist unit, which interfaced with Cormie’s CPU, a way for us to communicate that wasn’t nearly as fast as telepathy.
I saw nothing on it, but within moments I could see why.
Kaius had brought me to the wreck of the Snarlyow, an old fishing boat that had been emplaced on the reef before the Climate Catastrophe as a way to help shore up a weak section.
That was when the Plateau had been forty-five meters closer to the surface and in danger.
Kaius said his people had only moved to this reef a short time before his birth, when their home deeper in the ocean had become uninhabitable due to the increasing depth of the water.
Just as humans had to migrate inland with the rising of sea level, so it seemed that Kaius’s people, too, had needed to relocate in order to survive.
Now that we were closer, my wrist unit picked up Cormie’s mayday signal. Kaius released my hand so he could swim through a gap in the Snarlyow’s hull, and I followed him through, heart pounding in fear.
Cormie was indeed trapped, pinned by a section of the deck above which apparently had broken loose and fallen on them. They were strong, their biomechanically enhanced muscles able to lift far more than I could have, but this piece that trapped them was far too large for them to escape.
Fortunately, Cormie wasn’t panicking. They could still breathe, but their tail and part of their torso was pinned, and it was only the toughness of their titanium tail that kept them from being crushed.
They said they can’t get enough purchase to lift it, Kaius told me. Perhaps if I lift from one side, and you from the other, we can move it?
We have to try, I agreed, and moved to grip the heavy decking near Cormie’s waist. You give us a count to three and tell them to push up as best as they can.
One… Two…. Three!
Kaius gave the count, and I heaved with all my might.
Kaius was stronger than I, and his side came up more easily than mine.
Cormie pushed with their tail, but as they slipped out from beneath the decking, the heavy metallic piece shifted in my direction.
I couldn’t get purchase with my swim fins on the sandy bottom, and as I threw myself backward, the decking came back down, falling across my legs and pelvis.
Unlike Cormie, I was only flesh and blood. Neoprene wasn’t titanium, and so when the metal fell on me, it crashed down as though I weren’t even there.
Pain burst through me, pain like I had never experienced in my life. I screamed, my mouthpiece falling away. Water entered my mouth, and I knew then, absolutely knew, that I was going to die.
No! Kaius screamed in my mind, and I felt Cormie’s hands guiding the respirator back to my lips. Somehow they got it into my mouth, and I instinctively blew out the water before sucking in blessed air.
You have to go. I somehow heard Cormie talking to Kaius.
Maybe in the stress Kaius had managed to open between both of us; either that, or I was hallucinating from the pain.
Rescue divers will be coming since our communications pings were cut completely cut off when Michael entered the ship, and if I know Dr. Gail, she’ll send the rescue divers without hesitation.
They can save him, but there’s nothing you can do.
There must be something! Kaius protested. He was clutching one of my hands, but I couldn’t feel it, my body growing numb. I love him!
Love can’t save him, Cormie said almost cruelly. But his mother can. She will. Go, now, before they see you! If they know about you, your entire people will never be safe again!
You go too, I thought weakly at Cormie, hoping they heard me.
I can’t purge your memory. They’ll know if you return to the ship.
Go with Kaius! Help protect his people, Cormie.
They would have no choice but to obey me.
I was in charge of the mission, and they nodded.
No doubt they could reach the same logical conclusion I could.
I can’t leave you, Michael. Kaius’s face hovered in front of me, but it was growing dim. I love you!
I love you, too, my Kaius, I thought, but it was distant. I’ll come back. I don’t know when, but I promise if I live, I’ll return to you. No matter what it takes.
My vision went completely black, the last image in my mind that of Kaius’s beautiful face, twisted in sorrow. As I slipped away, I thought I could feel Kaius’s hands on my head, taking away the pain, taking away the fear, taking away everything and leaving me to float in a sea of endless peace.