Devotion To Steel

Then he turned, shifting sharper into the blackness. She sped up, catching up by twisting and turning with the shifting currents and, stopping next to him, gasped.

It was a steel structure that reminded Nevi of a log from a spire tree, a rocket designed to punch through the atmosphere, then spread out and pushed through with radiation. Two of the rods were still extended, and the silver rods were draped in a huge tent of glittery blanket, lined thick with thin centers like a net. Even from the distance Nevi could feel its energy, to withstand atmosphere, to manage such energy, the quality of that metal must have been impossibly high. And for it to be so clean…

Drensae had done the impossible. For a UFO, rocket, probe, satellite thingy to have been missed by an entire protective grid, AND slip through the secondary atmospheric grid only to be seen by a sixteen year old Drensae first and only… it was the greatest blessings of the Goddesses!

And its damage was extensive, and yet, she could see how the burns from atmospheric entry had been shrugged off. To be able to see it when the planet’s proud eyes missed it, and to manage to guess where it would have landed. And there was just so much metal, so much high quality metal! Once dredged it would have been officially scavenged! The claim belonging to brood farmers, of all people! No house colours, just the black of the common man.

It was the most incredible gift the Goddesses could have ever given.

“Drensae, I can’t believe it. This is the coolest thing I have ever seen!” She screamed.

“I told you!” He laughed giggling with a whole other kind of joy, they were hugging and shaking.

Nevi genuinely wanted to cry, drop down, throw her hands up and thank Goddesses Lys, Neve, Orel and Mere for their bounty, undeserved and forever welcomed.

A far too calm Drensae started gliding to it.

“Okay, we just have to pull it up. We go a few meters, swim to the surface, refill our air and then keep doing it until we are out of the water. Then we claim it with BledMother Mire and our graduation will be incredible. We’re going to start so well, we might pass the metal forge and begin our service as the best in any brood, not just the farm, city and house ones. We are going to work like we’re members of a House with my money to make a VoicedMother! Maybe even a HerdMother. We will never farm again Nevi, never. BledMother Mire might become a StitchMother, because of us!” he said with joy, the whole time playing with the sail dancing upon it, pulling the log.

Nevi could see it. The blessing, StitchMother Mire not being able to say a word against their marriage. Their kiss, the two of them bonding their membranes that might have developed colours by luxury alone. The others!

Solsae would have something to say, like snarky and cool matched with a show of strength, Selvi would be so jealous! And Tayr, she hesitated there, her eyes lowering for a moment. What would he say? What did she want him to say? Something more than grunting but hope had diminished.

She didn’t know what it was, perhaps her moment of hesitation, her break in joy. It had grounded her, reminded her of her situation. That she was but underwater, the pressure squeezing despite being in her full membrane, keeping her strong enough to admire the way the currents held their synchronous flow. And in that flow held something. It was long and sleek, grey and red with a green coat. It had one giant eye, which was so strange, loose and bulbous under the crush. The green, underwater, in the engine’s heat, why? The math was doing itself in her head and had come to a sudden, howling conclusion.

“Look out.” She yelled.

Drensae jerked and turned away, following Nevi’s pointing hand. He, naturally, believed and retreated from the danger.

It had been a trick. She took an angle swimming as if to get ahead but got under him and directly towards the strange eel. There should’ve been no reason to be afraid.

The membrane shielded most hooves, tusks, fangs, horns and venoms. But it was that alien green. There were fields of learning based on spotting that exact shade, she reached directly for it. And was rewarded with the horror of being correct, the eel wasn’t swimming and had never been green. The natural black and gray of the Lerora eel had been dissolved by the very specific burn of bio-engineered anti-flesh acid.

“Needlers!” She howled, grabbing the eel and looking back to him.

Her mind was racing, but not in panic. Well, some panic, but hers had always come in the form of prayer and the words were forming in her head. The mantras of the Veyr, a call of calm, for controlled action, a core service and that finger in the sand came to her and she was following it.

There was a Needler somewhere, but since both of them were still alive there could not be many, not burn upon the ocean ground… so the threat was still new… what did it mean? The sail! The UFO! That was still new.

She gripped the dead eel squeezing where it would not burn her, and kicked, demanding strength from her membrane, and getting it! There was a surge inside her, like there were injections of raw power, liquid energy, being drilled into her, flowing through her veins, creating vines that poured into her muscles, strength dashed the natural flow of the currents as the suit created glowing streaks, and her feet became a blur.

“Stay back!” Drensae yelled, he must have understood.

“No! You stay!” she demanded as touched the ground and pushed the two rods inwards, feeling the metal cave before she grabbed the sail, wrapping it around the metal structure like it was a folded kite the size of a rocket and lifted the entire hull.

Still bunching up the sail and wrapping it around the entire probe Nevi found the opening in the hull. The black void that was the cavity gained colour as movement was caught in her membrane’s light.

Dozens of Needlers were bobbing just outside the hole. One of the bubble-like creatures burst, imploding violently. But Nevi had already shoved that dead eel directly in their path. Bubbles formed as the corpse burned. More Needlers fired and more of the eel sizzled, the burn so dramatic she could feel the vibrations smacking against the membrane. Nevi switched to one pushing hand and blocked the hole, her ‘free’ hand pulled the sail and spun it around the sail like bandaging a wound, smothering it as much as she could as they attacked, the wrapping punching outwards constantly.

The outlines of the Needlers needles were visible but Nevi kept pushing and pulling until the sail was as smothered as possible, looping until there was no more sail to spread and still she could see inside that cavity, her eel buffer being dissolved.

The probe was huge but like any rocket it was longer than it was wide, it could be hugged, it could be lifted. Nevi heaved, lifted and started walking.

“Drensae I need your help. I need you to call the BledMother. Any BledMother.”

“What was in there?” He asked.

“You didn’t see it? Needlers.”

“Goddesses mercy!” He cried out.

“It’s fine. The sail is covering them. They can’t get out. But we can’t call the beacon from so deep. The water. You need to go.”

“No, Nevi, I’m the strongest one between us.”

“That’s exactly the reason. You’re bigger, you’re faster. Which means you’ll get help quicker than me. Please say you understand.”

“I have more air.”

“Good, you’ll need it to swim even faster.”

“Nevi, you’re not going to.”

“I am already. Okay, how about this. I promise to open it and kill us both if you don’t go. I am safe, I am just stuck. All I need to do is sit exactly still and breathe slow. You do this, become heroes. We save the day, maybe they make us BledMothers before our service even starts. I don’t know but I know I’m going to sit here and think about it. But I can’t if I’m talking to you.”

The calm talk, despite the fear, Nevi was not sure if it was working. He was moving but indecision had pinned him, he turned back.

“You can’t,” he began, but she was already moving.

“I’m opening it,” Nevi demanded.

It froze him in place, but he started swimming in place.

“Wait! I’ll be right back, don’t move. Don’t move!”

“I promise, now go make us heroes!”

He nodded and took off swimming faster than anything she had seen before. He really was bigger, faster, stronger, better.

Drensae might have actually had the strength to hold the Needlers together. Nevi did not. The Needlers only had to be hit once to be popped. It wouldn’t kill them but it would hold them back. The cost resulting in needles cutting through the membrane to burn the meat of the body to ash.

Picture books with the names of deadly creatures, bio-engineered monsters made to hurt the children of the Goddesses.

The Osljip or Eye Popper, a cone-like object that hung on roofs and wall corners and pumped poison out. They were not immune to the membrane’s protection, but many people would peel back their membrane to expose their face, even if she’d done it. And when that mistake was made, spores would melt human eyes. The type of thing that made scary stories until one went blind.

The Zalac or the Needler, water-based puffy and easy to pop. Besides the lessons, there were many scary stories and no one explained how strong they were even before the popping. She was not strong enough, they were going to break out of the grip she held. The membrane was doing its best but she could feel them pressing against her arm, poking and stabbing, the sail’s material was the only substance blocking the acid that should’ve been cutting through her tender flesh like meat on a slab.

And she heaved, the hold under her armpit trembled, the digging hurting but not killing. The beam lifted. Popping out of the soil, she took a step forward.

The membrane warned her. She was using too much oxygen. The energy of the membrane was being drained, and the technology had the strength to absorb heat as energy and it was not enough. The water would be so much cooler at the surface.

More sky and ironically less air.

Still she lifted, still she stepped forward, one step then another.

She needed the air where there was none, strength where it had been left behind. Thankfully the strength had never belonged to her. And that was why she’d win.

There wasn’t air but the air, her lungs, never belonged to her, and that was why she would win.

“Neve, aer va me.Neve, veyr va me.Neve, seyn va me.Neve, staal va me.Neve, han va me.Neve, breth va me.”

Her energy was below thirty percent when she saw sunlight for the first time. The endless dark pierced suddenly before draining away.

At some point she had failed. The Needlers had managed to peel back some of the sail. But she stepped on, pushing faster, the movement robotic. It wasn’t even pushing, it was tilting the body at angles and then letting the meat of her flesh fill the gap. Then she tilted again.

The gratitude was never ending. She would not ask because she had and that was more than enough to be grateful.

People died, people got to be welcomed back to the goddesses. Veyr would be there. She would welcome her. Sael would sing, she would teach her how to dance, she would harvest with Orven and feast with Holden and all the others. She would be full.

She screamed. Her chest was burning. At some point the beam under the arm had failed completely. It currently stood up straight as a sail, pressed against her body in a hug.

She was burning. A whole new kind of burning.

The mantra had words but then those vanished too.

The membrane’s air had run out, the power had formed a new complaint but soon after those words flickered.

Then there was midnight blackness.

Then there was light, gasping air and then power all over again.

She’d stepped out of the water. The beam’s weight controlled her more than the other way around. So she let it tilt forwards and there was a rushing, a scampering of feet as she was dragged forward.

She was running, that wasn’t true, she was being run, and she was stuck to it. She looked down to see blood, a lot of it around encircling a bubbling and dripping green.

The corners of her eye caught blue light and red light, flashing. She buckled, destined to fall back, her bloody feet were out of the water. So she buckled low, heaving and the beam levered forwards.

It ripped away from her, taking her bubbling flesh with it, her ribcage tinged in green and red, completely exposed to the air.