Adrift

As the smoldering remains of the Moonbeam sank below the surface, the weight of everything — the salvation of Alice's people — seemed to sink with it.

Simon sat opposite her in their neon orange inflatable life raft with the metal case of the mobile comms unit in his lap, trying to get it online. They were the only two of their five-person research expedition to survive the crash.

It wasn't supposed to go like this. Alice hugged her knees to her chest and retraced the event in her mind.

Flashing red lights, alarms blaring. The calm, robotic voice saying, "Warning: mechanical failure." How the steering controls had jerked from her grasp. She'd practiced emergency water landings hundreds of times, but the craft had tipped toward a rocky sea stack as if magnetized.

Then, impact. Screaming. Flames.

The water streaming through the shredded hull was already knee-deep when she broke free from the daze. Devon and Anthony floated lifelessly in the bridge while Simon stumbled from the mechanical bay and swam for the surface through the gap in the hull.

Alice had found Priya in the lab, ejecting something from the computer. The weeping void where Priya's left arm should be, draining blood into the rising water. Priya pressed the data disk to Alice's chest, her brown eyes aflame with determination, even as the color drained from her face. All their research, their people's hope of a life free from the Federation, all rested on that disk.

Alice tried to help her swim to safety, but Priya was fading too fast.

She was already gone by the time they had made it to the surface. Alice had let go to clamber into the raft, only to turn around and see her oldest friend — the most tenacious and intelligent person she'd ever known — swallowed by the ocean and pulled down with the ruins of the ship.

She rested her hand on her flight suit pocket, her fingertips tracing the hard, rounded ridges of the data disk within. Such a massive weight of responsibility in such a light, compact package.

"I should have been able to save us," Alice whispered, her voice barely audible over the lapping of the waves.

"We should be dead," Simon said. His hands — somehow still blackened by machine oil — explored the surfaces of the comms unit, plugging and unplugging its components. He tested the switches and dials, each one failing to produce a response.

Alice studied the blackness of the water below. The scope of their research on this planet was minimal and relegated to land. They'd spent three weeks taking soil samples, testing rivers for potability, and analyzing the air. The flora and fauna of the islands had become familiar friends.

But the ocean below was still alien.

An enormous shadow slid into view beneath the surface of the waves. The water swelled, lurching the raft upward.

"What the hell was that?" Simon asked, pausing his tinkering to scan the area. "That didn't feel like a wave."

"I don't know," Alice replied as she bent her upper body over the wall of the raft and tried to see deeper into the inky blackness. "Something huge just passed beneath us."

"Well, hopefully it doesn't come back to eat us, because this thing is fried," Simon said, setting the comms unit at his feet and running a hand through his salt and pepper hair.

"What?"

"See for yourself. Water must've fried the circuits."

Simon kicked the case over to her with his right boot. His left ankle had swollen and turned purple.

Alice picked up the unit and flipped the power switch repeatedly, willing it to whir to life. Her fingers searched over the switches, ports, and dials. She'd used it once or twice before, but was far from an expert on its mechanisms. Drops of moisture collected on her fingertips as she inspected it. Simon's diagnosis seemed likely.

"If we got it to land, maybe we could take it apart and dry it out?" she asked, flipping the case over in her palms.

Another swell came from below, this time larger than the last, surging so aggressively that Alice dropped the comms unit and gripped the edges of the raft to stop herself from being bucked out.

A wave broke overhead and drenched them both. The thing below emitted such a deep, bellowing groan that the ocean's surface trembled around them — vibrations tunnelling through the raft and into her bones. It sounded as if some great giant had heaved a sorrowful sigh.

They couldn't wait around for a plan any longer. Alice skimmed the horizon and spotted it: a distant treeline.

"There's an island over there," she said, pointing.

"That's miles away," said Simon. "We'll never make it."

Something thumped along the base of the raft, as if probing for a way inside.

"We don't have a choice."

She wrenched the motor to life and steered them around to face the trees on the horizon.

Before long, the treeline grew into view as a large, lush coastline. It was not unlike the islands they had explored during their expedition. On the surface, the planet had been nothing short of paradise.

"What the fuck is this now?" Simon groaned, pointing a finger toward the stern. Alice looked over her shoulder.

A spiny pair of dorsal fins followed a few paces behind. Alice could discern the silvery skin of a torpedo-shaped creature with a long, pointed tail, distorted by the raft's wake. Too small to be the massive thing that threatened to upend them before, but it easily outstripped the raft in scale.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" he asked through gritted teeth.

Alice reached down to investigate the motor. She pulled back just in time to avoid the snapping jaws and rows of needle-like teeth as the finned creature lunged forward. Its beady black eyes fixed on her with a singular purpose.

"I think this is as good as it gets."

"Well, it's about to get a lot worse," Simon said, pointing to the dual fins of at least five more predators approaching from the starboard side.

The island neared, but was still out of reach.

"Maybe we can distract them somehow?" Alice suggested.

She patted down her pockets in search of something to throw. Her hand fell briefly on the data disk. If she threw away her people's only hope for survival, this entire journey would be pointless. The comms unit was too bulky to toss very far, and they would need it if it could be repaired.

Simon checked his own pockets. "With what?"

A deep groan caused the surrounding waves to tremble. One of the finned predators disappeared beneath the surface with a muffled shriek, leaving only a pinkish foam floating behind.

Undeterred, three more of the torpedo-like creatures rammed the port-side of the raft, knocking Alice from her seat and swerving them off course.

More approached from almost every angle, even as the thing below claimed another of their kin. Every movement from the enormous mass below created tumultuous waves that launched the raft from the water.

How much more of this could they withstand?

Alice grimaced as the plan came to her, dread gripping her stomach.

"I have to draw them off."

"What?" Simon asked, bewildered as he tried to right the raft with an oar.

She unzipped the breast pocket of her flight suit and removed the data disk.

"Take this," she said, handing it to Simon. "Our research. Take it so you can transmit it back to Almeria."

One creature seized hold of the oar in Simon's hands, ripping it from his grasp and snapping it in two.

"Fuck!" he roared. "These things would devour you in seconds. What good would it do?"

"I just need to buy you some distance. I'd be an easy target — easier than chasing down the raft. Whatever that big thing is, I think it's following them."

Simon sighed and drummed his fingers rapidly against the wall of the raft.

"It's the best chance you've got," Alice said. She offered the data disk again. He sized her up, then nodded. He took the disk from her and pocketed it.

"You'll fix it — the comms," she said, nodding, as much to herself as to Simon. "You'll fix it and tell them that there's hope here."

"Okay," he said.

She stood up, bracing herself against the bench as she assessed the situation. The creatures gathered behind them and to the starboard side. If she leapt off the port-side bow, the raft's momentum might propel her. It may only buy a few extra inches, but every bit could make a difference.

Her heart pounded in her ears. She took a steadying breath.

This was for Almeria, for her people to survive outside the Federation's grasp.

She heaved off the side of the raft and dove into the black waves below. The icy, dark water surrounded her. She kicked hard to drive herself forward, trying to put as much distance between herself and Simon.

The roar came first; the sound shook her once again to her marrow. Something seized her. A muffled scream bubbled from her throat. It pinned her against its slippery skin with crushing force, dragging her body through the ocean with incomprehensible speed.

Water rushed into her lungs, salty and metallic. She fought to free herself from the thing's grasp, but her strength was fading.

Fighting for air, but there was none to be found.

Then the darkness swallowed her.

---

She awakened, gagging, coughing. Her lungs rasped. Her throat burned.

But she was alive. How was she alive?

Alice opened her eyes, blinking until her eyelids cleared the blur. She was face down on the gravelly bank of the island. She tried to crawl — tried to distance herself from the ocean that had taken so much from her, just to spit her back out. But she collapsed, exhausted and spent.

A flash of orange in the corner of her right eye.

The raft. Simon.

She turned over her shoulder to see him limping ashore.

It worked.

He stopped to stare at her, cocking his head. He looked as surprised to see her alive as she was.

She tried to raise an arm to hail him, but only managed another gagging cough.

He turned to pull the comms unit from the floor of the raft and set it on the gravel shore, popping open its case. He knelt over it and pulled something small from his pocket and plugged it into the side of the device. It beeped to life as he powered it up.

But how?

He stood with some effort and brushed off his hands, then turned to Alice, smirking.

"Oh, Alice," he said as he staggered toward her, pulling a multi-tool from its holster and flicking open the blade. "I can't thank you enough for everything."

"What are you doing?" she croaked through the acid in her throat, her head still swimming with seawater.

"All your carefully drawn maps of the system? Pretty little Priya and her little piles of dirt?"

Alice's stomach turned hearing Priya's name in his mouth.

The Federation. Of course. They wanted a new planet to plunder.

She tried to summon the strength to sit up, but her body was like lead.

He pulled the data disk from his breast pocket and tossed it to the ground beside her, just barely out of reach. She moved instinctively to grab it, but he dropped a knee to her chest.

"Don't worry, it'll be put to good use."

The engines stalling out, the way the controls had snapped from her hands. How he'd just sat there and let her blame herself.

"The ship… why…?" Alice wheezed.

Her ribs ached as he pressed his knee harder into her sternum. She clawed at it with her fingernails, but it was useless.

"An unfortunate miscalculation on my part," he said. "You should really vet your engineers better."

He repositioned himself to straddle her at the waist, moving the knife toward her throat. She braced against him with the little remaining strength in her arms, her heels digging into the gravel but finding no purchase.

"Not to worry, though. Four traitorous corpses and your precious data will still fetch a decent payday." He pressed harder now and leaned in, his breath hot and damp on her eyelids.

Bold of him to get so close.

"The Federation thanks you for your service, Alice."

She tipped her head back and rammed her forehead into his nose. The splitting pain in her head almost drowned out the wet sting of the blade biting her neck. He reeled back. It was just enough space.

Alice tucked her knees and rolled back, kicking as hard as she could. Her boots found their target square in the center of his chest. He tumbled backward, twisting his left ankle with a yelp and falling into a receding wave that carried him further from the shore.

He struggled to regain his footing as the water swelled to the level of his waist. Alice pushed herself up into a seated position and grabbed the data disk. Her legs were wobbly, but hopefully they would run.

Simon raised the blade and lurched forward.

"You fucking b- AAAAH!"

He vanished beneath the waves, thrashing. A cloud of red bloomed in the water. Finned creatures circled, then retreated out to sea.

Alice dropped back to the gravel, her tense muscles finally releasing as relief washed over her body.

She gazed up at the dense, leafy canopy overhead. Brightly colored winged creatures chirped and flitted between branches. The wind and the waves were like a soft symphony, harmonizing with their songs.

Almeria used to be green like this, according to the pictures and history texts she had seen growing up. The Federation had turned the land to dust, robbed of its life and natural resources. Embargoes sought to starve them out when they finally mobilized in protest.

Clutching Priya's data to her chest, Alice took a deep, rattling breath of the sweet air. Her people could have a life here, far from the grasp of the Federation.

Knees trembling, she stood up and retrieved the comms unit. She tuned it to a secure Almerian channel, enabled the transmitter, and slotted in the disk. A green light on the end of the antenna blinked in confirmation.

A message of hope departed into the void.