The Lap of Luxury 4.3

The Lap of Luxury - Part 3

Astrid and Mishka managed to make it through the rest of the park’s trees without incident, other than some weird, tree-trunk-looking monster that was about three feet tall and ignored them entirely. There were more people milling about in distress, but Astrid knew that the best way to help them was to get the little cub she was guiding by the shoulders to the engine room.

They reached a stairwell, and after consulting one of the ship’s maps on the wall, presented as a cross-section, they descended. According to the map, they had seven decks to go down to get to the area marked ‘crew-only’ that had to be the engine room. Things got quieter as they descended, passing by empty corridors lined with cabins, silent except for the occasional hushed sob of a terrified occupant.

It struck Astrid as odd that there had been no announcement from the Captain, or, if he had been injured, the First Officer. She hadn’t noticed anything wrong with the bridge when they’d been in the park, but perhaps they’d been afflicted by something more subtle, like that terrible tree. Astrid shuddered, even now she could feel the traces of the alien thing in her mind, remember how incredibly beautiful it had been, how easily she would have let herself be… devoured? Consumed? What had even happened there?

Somewhere above them was a deep, warbling roar, and Astrid picked up her pace as they descended, down the zig-zag stairs, lower and lower and lower until they came to the bottom deck which…

Which was filled with water.

Up to the ceiling, and rising slowly all the time. Astrid didn’t know if the ship’s water-tanks had breached or if it was being created by some kind of monster or effect from the Beneath, but what mattered was it was between them and the engine room, and that little Mishka had suddenly become a totally immovable object.

“We-we can’t go through there!” said Mishka. “It’s flooded!”

“We’ll have to swim,” said Astrid. “You can make… air bubbles, or something? With magic, right?”

Mishka shook her head emphatically. “No! We can’t go through there!”

Astrid frowned. Mishka was trembling violently, and her already quite pale face seemed to have lost all its colour. She wasn’t even looking at Astrid, instead staring at the dark, slowly rising water with a look of absolute horror.

Water? Mishka was scared of water? Astrid wouldn’t have guess that, but… well, everyone had their phobias.

“Listen to me, Little Bear,” said Astrid, squatting down next to her and taking her trembling hands. “If we don’t get to the engine room, then things are just going to get worse and worse and worse until this ship is overrun with monsters. We have to go through there, we have to be brave.”

Mishka shook her head violently again. “No!” she said. “I won’t! I-I can’t!”

“I’ll be with you,” said Astrid, squeezing the little cub’s hands. “Please Mishka, we have to do this.”

Mishka began to cry, great tears streaming from her puffy red eyes. Astrid grimaced and hugged her kid-ified friend, even as she watched the water creeping higher and higher.

“Mishka, there’s something I heard you tell someone, very recently, that I’d like to tell you,” said Astrid, drawing and back pulling out a tissue to wipe away the tears and snot from her friend’s face. “That it’s normal to feel fear, that its a hallmark of being sentient. But that all of us, every single one, have the strength within us to over come it. It might be hard to find, hard to grasp, but it’s there - in all of us. And I know it’s within you, more than me, more than maybe anyone I’ve ever met before. You are an exceptionally brave person Mishka, you ran away from your people because… well I don’t know exactly, but you did it because you thought it was right. So I know that you have the strength to push past your fear of that water.”

Mishka continued to tremble violently, and for a moment Astrid didn’t think she’d gotten through to her. But then Mishka reached over and grasped Astrid’s necklace, a silver chain her father had given her when she’d graduated high school, a long time ago. It was pretty cheap, aluminium, probably, but Astrid had always worn it, ever since.

There was a flash of energy, and complex runes spun themselves into existence around Mishka’s hands as the little girl focused, weaving power and energy into the item in what, Astrid realised after a moment, was proper, real, free enchanting. The kind you normally paid tens of thousands of credits for.

“T-there,” said Mishka as the light died away. “That- that will let you breathe.”

The little bear hesitantly stepped towards the rising water, raising her bracelet and tapping at it a few times.

“T-the engine room still has air,” she said after a moment. “The- the bulkhead sealed.”

“Doesn’t that mean we’re locked out?” asked Astrid.

Mishka shook her head. “I can- I can make a seal,” she said. “Keep the water out.”

The little cub stopped at the edge of the water and stared down into it. Her small hands were trembling, and when Astrid took one it gripped onto her like a lifeline.

“Together,” said Astrid. “OK?”

***

The water was clear, almost crystalline, but it was also very, very dark. Here and there a few of the lights clung to life, casting pools of flickering orange out into the submerged corridor. Bits and pieces of detritus hung in the water, or pressed up against the now totally submerged ceiling if they were particularly buoyant: a tea trolley had shed its load of cups, which lay higgledy-piggledy on the floor, while the trolley itself clung to the corridor’s roof, forcing them to dive lower to get past it.

Mishka, whose bracelet had created some kind of airshell around her entire body, was still trembling, despite the fact that she must have been toasty warm inside her protective cocoon. Astrid, on the other hand, was trembling because she was was cold. Really cold. The only saving grace was that she was wearing a swimsuit, so she wasn’t weighed down by sodden clothes, which meant she was able to make quite good time down the corridor, heading for the engine room.

After almost three minutes of swimming through the gloom they came to a sealed bulkhead door. The little Mishka swam up and pressed a hand against. There was a brief pulse of light, then a click, and it slid away to reveal more dimly lit, flooded corridor.

The door sealed itself behind them with a dull thunk, and the pair swam on into the inky silence. After perhaps another thirty seconds, Astrid began to see a glow coming from ahead. It wasn’t the orange of the lights that were still working, instead it was a soft, bioluminescent blue glow. Both of them drew to a stop, and Mishka tapped her bracelet a few times, her small brow furrowing adorably before she raised a hand and passed her dry hand into the bubble of air around Astrid’s face, creating a corridor of air between them.

“My bracelet is detecting a single life-form,” came Mishka’s trembling voice. “Um, lots of… Beneath energy.”

“Can we go around it?” asked Astrid. There had been a few corridors leading off and to the side, but whether or not they led to the engine room, she had no idea.

A map appeared on Mishka’s bracelet, and the small bear-girl studied it for a moment before shaking her head. “No, we, um… we’ll need to go past it.”

Astrid opened her mouth to ask Mishka if she could destroy it, before closing it again. This Mishka clearly had less compunction about blasting things - that lightning and fire she had thrown around would be deadly, but assuming they fixed this, Mishka would, presumably, regain her memories. She would be deeply upset by the destruction of the tree, Astrid knew, she couldn’t ask her friend to kill. For whatever reason, pacifism was one of Mishka’s core tenants, and Astrid didn’t want to make her violate that. Not if she didn’t need to.

Assuming that whatever it was up ahead was sentient, at least.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Can you tell if it’s hostile?” asked Astrid.

Mishka withdrew her hand and tapped away at her bracelet again before shaking her head, creating a strange little swirling halo of trapped air as the sheaths from each individual follicle trailed through the water.

Astrid exhaled, and then reached out and took the little bear-girl’s hand, the moisture wicking away as soon as her hand passed the membrane of air around Mishka, leaving her hand mostly, but not quite totally dry.

“Come on then,” she said.

They swam forward towards the bioluminescent glow, which resolved into a mass of strange corals growing from one of the doorways leading off the corridor. The growth had wierd looking, slimy tendrils growing from their tips, which swished and waved in the water, almost like great, long, prehensile tongues. Even as Astrid watched, she could see the coral expanding slowly in real time, millimetre by millimetre, creeping over the walls and out into the watery corridor.

They both swam up to the ceiling to avoid the whippy, tongue-like growths. The creature, if it was indeed a creature, reacted to their presence, and the tongues lolled upward towards them - but came up short, and they passed by without incident.

They swam onward, coming to another bulkhead. Mishka fiddled with her bracelet for a moment, before frowning and turning to Astrid, touching the bubble of air around her head.

“There isn’t any air through there,” said Mishka. “It’s… more corridor.”

Astrid gave her a confused look. “What? But- but surely that’s the engine room? The ship isn’t that big.”

Mishka bit her lip. “It shouldn’t be,” she said, even as she pressed a hand against the door and opened it.

The bulkhead retracted, revealing more dimly lit, flooded corridor that vanished off into darkness.

They swam forward again, and another a blueish glow loomed from the gloom. Mishka stopped and scanned it a second time.

“More of the coral thing?” asked Astrid, pressing the shell around her head against Mishka’s shoulder.

“Yes, but this one is twice the size,” said Mishka.

They kicked forward, and once again came to a mass of the strange coral spilling out of a room. They were able to get past it again, although its waving tendrils came closer this time, and then, after a bit more swimming, came to another bulkhead.

“Is this the engine room?” asked Astrid.

Mishka scanned it, then shook her head again. “No…” she said. “There- there is more water behind it.”

“That’s- that’s impossible!” said Astrid, looking back at the soft blue glow emanating from behind them. “We must have swum a kilometre! The aft section of the ship shouldn’t be that long!”

Astrid remembered the maps, there definitely weren’t three bulkheads between the stairs at the rear of the park and the engine room. What was going on? Was this some kind of psychic projection? Like the never-ending department store had been? Perhaps… although she didn’t think that those octopus things that had gotten Mishka had been from the Beneath.

Then again, it was possible the Mishka just hadn’t told her. Mishka did that. It was very annoying.

Little Mishka brought up her map again. Or rather, she tried to. Her Mana-screen began to jitter and spasm, and a moment later an error message appeared in the centre: Warning: Cartographic Matricies Unable to Synthesise Representation of Surroundings — Non-Euclidean Geometry Detected.

“What does that mean?” asked Astrid.

“It means that the Beneath is messing with the dimensions,” said Mishka in a quavering voice, pressing a hand against the door. Another pulse of light, and it slid back to reveal… more corridor. “W-we’re trapped!” She began to shake violently. “We’re trapped!”

“Hey, hey, it’s OK, it’s OK,” said Astrid, hugging the little bear. “It’s OK.”

It wasn’t OK. Astrid had no idea what they were supposed to do. This was very much Mishka’s territory. Except Mishka wasn’t her usual hyper-competent, if weird self. She was a scared little girl, trapped in a dark, flooded corridor that seemed to be endlessly looping. Probably as close to her greatest fear as you could get.

“What happens if we swim back?” asked Astrid, gesturing the way they had come.

“It’s a loop!” sobbed Mishka. “We’d just end up here. We’re trapped!”

“Are you sure?” asked Astrid. “Mishka, you’re really smart, and even at your age, you’ve probably read loads and loads and loads - your people are like, masters of the Beneath, right? You use it to travel without voidships for Saint’s sake.”

“I can’t do that yet!” said Mishka, her chest heaving. “I’m still doing the preparatory modules.”

“That’s OK, that’s OK,” said Astrid. “But have you read anything about this… non-Euclidian… type thing? Ways around it?”

Mishka scrunched her eyes up and shook her head. “No I…” She sniffed. “Well, um… the- I did read something about the ‘Contradictory Symbology Effect…’”

“Great,” said Astrid encouragingly, stoking Mishka’s back and trying to get the little cub to focus. “What’s that?”

“That… that in areas containing contradictory physical laws, symbolism is able to push or… pull one or the other. It’s- it’s actually central to how we Voidwalk, but… um… if we could do something to symbolically break the loop, it, ah, might work.”

Astrid studied the bulkhead, before snapping her fingers as a thought came to her.

“Mishka, can you cut through this bulkhead?” said Astrid. “Like, fully cut away the metal - make it so it can’t seal?”

“I… um, yes?” said Mishka, thinking for a moment. “Oh!” she said. “Yes! That could work!”

The little cub held up two of her short fingers, scrunched up her face, and a moment later a four inch long jet of superheated golden plasma erupted from the tips. It must have been somehow contained, since it didn’t immediately boil the water around it, but heat still rolled off the bulkhead as Mishka began to cut away at the metal.

It took quite a while, and Astrid kept on glancing back over her shoulder. Was the blue light of the coral behind them getting brighter…? She couldn’t be sure.

The door came away, and with a little push wafted inward, landing with a thunk that rang out down the corridor. Mishka took Astrid’s hand again, and together they swam foward into darkness. For a while, there was nothing. The lights were beginning to go out, and Astrid almost began to hope that they’d broken the loop, and that the bioluminescent coral wouldn’t be there ahead of them.

But it was.

And it had grown.

Now covering the floor, walls and ceiling of the corridor, it looked as if several hours of growth had been added to it. Worse, there was now no clear path all the way through the writhing and coiling tongues. The rate of expansion seemed to have sped up, and it was several millimetres a second.

“I’m guessing that we shouldn’t let those touch us?” said Astrid.

Mishka gulped and shook her head. “No, um, I don’t know what it is, but if it’s from the Beneath…”

“It can’t be good,” said Astrid, turning and looking at one of the nearby cabins. “What about cutting through the walls between the cabins? Making out own way through?”

Mishka moved over and pressed her hand against a door. It unlocked with a dull click, and she pulled it open-

A blue, tongue-like tendril shot outwards, and Mishka jerked back with almost preturnatural reflexes and at a speed that was virtually a blur, just in time to avoid having it strike her face. Mishka’s scream was drowned out by the water, and came through muffled and distorted. A mana-screen jumped into existence above Mishka’s bracelet, and Astrid caught a glimpse of the message: Warning: Cascading Non-Euclidian Environemental Contagion Detected.

Astrid grabbed the small bear and moved to pull her back down the way they had come, only to turn in the water to see that the coral had somehow spread behind them, and was now creeping towards them from all directions.

“Mishka, do- do you have a spell to create force, to propel us?” she asked, bringing the tiny bear-girl’s hand up to her face.

“We’re trapped!” said Mishka, her entire body trembling violently. “We’re trapped! I- I didn’t want to come into the water! I hate the water!”

“Mishka, please!” said Astrid, jerking out the way of a lashing tongue from the now rapidly growing coral. “Something to pull us past this thing - maybe quickly enough to not get caught?”

“I want to go home-”

“Well, you can’t!” shouted Astrid as her own panic started to take over. “You can’t!”

Mishka began to cry.

“Fuck, no, I’m sorry,” said Astrid, hugging the small cub as the coral continued to creep towards them. “I’m sorry Mishka.”

“I’ll never see them again!” sobbed Mishka. “Even if I get out of here!”

“Never see who?” asked Astrid.

“My c-c-creche!” said Mishka, her voice catching as she wailed into her shell of air. “I- I’m a traitor! I m-m-must be! To consort with aliens!”

Astrid hugged the small cub tighter. Her creche? Did she mean her brothers and sisters? Or did Ursulans not have those? They were weird xenophobic communists or something, maybe they’d abolished the family entirely? Astrid could remembered that anarchist she’d fancied once having a raging debate with anther leftwinger who had wanted to do that. Natasha had called them an ‘authoritarian crypto-fascist dressed in red,’ which Astrid had laughed at very hard — not because she’d understood it, but because she’d been desperate to get into Natasha’s pants.

Well, whatever the creche was, it was clearly important to this version of Mishka. Very important.

“I don’t know why you did it Mishka, but I know you had a good reason,” said Astrid. “A very good reason. And I know I’m not an ursulan, but I’m not going to abandon you.” She squeezed the little girl again, her eyes darting to the tendrils that were closing in on them from all sides, millimetre by millimetre. “But Mishka, please, we need to get past those things. We need to. Everyone on board this ship is depending on us. So I need you to be brave again, like you were before, OK?”

Mishka continued to cry, and Astrid felt the damn holding back her own despair burst within her. It was too much, it was all too much to ask of a child, she couldn’t.

Then a wave of searing white energy erupted from Mishka, washing over the tendrils and the coral, burning and charring wherever it touched and filling the water with hideous shrieking sounds. The magic, however, came at a cost, and Astrid saw the small cub’s eyes flutter and her body go limp. For a moment Astrid panicked, and frantically checked for Mishka’s pulse. She found it, and the small girl’s breaths came in strong and steady. She’d just exhausted herself with the spell, that was all.

Astrid grabbed her and pulled her tight as she began to kick through the burnt and damaged coral, noting uneasily that it was already starting to repair itself. Destroyed, it was not.

Still, it was powerless to stop them, and although Astrid was slower dragging the barely conscious Mishka along with her, she still reached the next bulkhead within half a dozen minutes.

The lights had all died, and the only the shine from Mishka’s braclet lit up the darkness. Unable to properly see, her scared mind was for a moment convinced that it was the same bulkhead that Mishka had cut through, that they truely were trapped. But then she saw that this one had writing on it — good, solid, angular Pescian Basin: ‘Engine Room.’

They’d made it.