Underwater World

Underwater World

by J. Itchen

ISBN: 9780463568149

Published by J. Itchen at Smashwords.

Copyright: ©2019, J. Spottiswoode, all rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Author's note: All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.

Briefing

Nova swam into the Briefing Room as her octopus-like tentacles briefly touched her friends and colleagues to greet them, three or four casual strokes at a time. Her warm rippling green glow showed her pleasure at seeing them all. The light from their collective bioluminescence filled the room with a positive lively glow, mainly greens, yellows and the occasional excited orange. It was a bare room except for a couple of massive stuffed shark heads fixed to the white walls and a presentation system at the front, which was not currently being used. There had been a leak so the gas protecting the electronics had bubbled out to replaced by their ocean water. The whole thing would need to be replaced.

Due to these sorts of difficulties electricity was still only used occasionally, except like here in the military HQ. The population had lived for generations with just their bioluminescence and this was how most still lived, despite the strong technological advances that had come with electricity. The water temperature was always just right, a bit cold very close to the all-encompassing ice overhead, but they mostly kept constantly warmish by the multiple hot water gushers on the ocean bed.

This is very hush-hush, Nova muttered and blinked her yellow colours in a fond smile at Torsten.

It is even more hush-hush than most things! Torsten smiled back with greenish yellow lights. There was a hint of orange excitement there too, although Torsten was usually a highly controlled and formal military type. Just you wait and see!

Torsten was Nova’s main competitor as well as her closest colleague in the Corps. He was strong, with bright lights and a ferocious intellect. His tentacles sucked strongly when he greeted people. Despite what could be seen as aloofness he was handsome and the darling of the young female cadets. This was much to Nova’s annoyance, which she tried not to acknowledge even to herself. Nova felt that she knew Torsten much better than most, but not romantically.

I think that this time we really are going to go up through the ice, Torsten flashed a surprisingly bright excited orange light ring at her.

Nova’s light was as strong as Torsten’s and they were very well matched. Both were physically super fit and the cream of the elite exploration corps. She could see that Torsten was excited. Yellowish orange colours now rippled up and down his body to show his alert anticipation and interest.

I can’t believe that we will be allowed to go through the top ice! Nova replied in disbelief. Why should the Council change its mind now? We are not even at war.

Something very important has happened to change their minds, Torsten replied confidently, with a sly wink. He obviously knew something that Nova did not, or thought that he did. Nova found that most information that was true came through rumour, not the official announcements. Only strictly censored information ever came through official channels, usually inaccurately or altered to push a message. Sometimes the so-called information was downright lies, which Nova saw through more and more as she matured and rose in military circles.

Nova took a position floating high to the side of the room where she could see the front and also watch the others in the audience. It was Marshall Marsh, the top military guy in charge of these headquarters, who was there to brief them. This had to be important. Marsh had been born to take a senior position and his parents had made sure that this was clear by their name choice. Nova was not from a top family. Marsh was old and less quick than he had been, but his light was still strong and usually he displayed stern blues or cross grey colours over his body.

Marsh flashed his whitest brightest body lights for silence. He spread out his tentacles to show his massive authoritative frame that filled the whole space above the desk. He had once been very strongly built and a champion swimmer.

The time we have all waited for so long has arrived, Marsh announced, flashing an orange, almost excited, grim body smile. The High Church Council has approved the biggest breakthrough ever. We are to go up through the ice up to the absence of everything.

Marsh waited until the gasps and ripples of excited colours on everyone’s torsos died down. He did not seem inclined to say much more as the implications sank in.

Why the sudden change? someone asked.

That is the big question, Marsh agreed and suddenly his almost excited colouring turned into a deep blue, a deeper more serious considered blue than Nova had ever seen on even him. We cannot divulge why at this stage. All the information in this area is provided on a strictly ‘need to know’ basis. I will ask a few people to remain after the briefing to go through the highly confidential details. We need to investigate something new and that means going up through the ice. That is all I can say. You have been invited here because every single one of you needs to know that this is the new policy, but none of you all tell anyone else. What is behind it must be kept top secret.

Torsten shone a white light. Do we not need to know why the High Church Council has changed its mind. It is a long standing and historic position that there is no point in going up through the ice because there is literally nothing above the ice. So why go? It is the edge of existence and so in the past it has been considered sacrilege to go to the top. Even when we thought that we had permission to go once in the past they then changed their minds. Torsten asked.

They will not change their minds this time, Marsh replied, and I think that you are one of the very few who knows why. We are to go up through the ice and that is definite. That is all that most of you need to know at this stage. Those who need to know more will be briefed separately under the strictest secrecy rules.

Nova felt Torsten poke her in the ribs. Torsten definitely knew something! Were they both to stay behind at the end and hear the more complete, if censored, story? Nova felt her excitement rise even higher and she now glowed a bright yellow with a dash of orange.

Marsh continued as flashes of blue-green lights of concerned anticipation rippled through the dark grey of worry on his chest. However, everyone here needs to know and prepare for the fact that we are going through the ice and that this will happen next Thursday. That is five days from now! This is highly confidential and the cover story is that we are carrying out a secret test of new military technology, which in a way is true. It is highly confidential that we are going through it right to the top, into the absence of everything. You all need to be ready for that in your technical planning but you must tell no-one, not even your family.

Someone started applauding which changed into cheers. They were going through the ice for the first time ever! Remote probes had gone through before, but never a living being.

The cheering reverberated through the water and buffeted Nova. The room shone with all the bright orange lights as the bioluminescence rippled along many bodies. However Nova hardly noticed. This was it! This is what she had trained for over the last five years without knowing whether the Council would ever approve it. The Council had refused permission for so many years, even when they were at war. What had been so ocean-shaking as to change their minds now? Her brain was overwhelmed and she entwined his longest tentacle around Torsten’s. This was their comradely bonding action, just short of becoming sexual, something like a close hug. They had been through a lot together.

Why have they changed their minds? Nova yelled above the cheers into Torsten’s ear.

The rumours I have heard are even more incredible than the decision to go through the ice, Torsten replied, his bright yellow and orange display showing tinges of grey. He was worried as well as excited. Marsh will tell us officially when he is ready.

What could be more incredible than going to the edge of existence? Nova shouted happily over the din. Her rippling vibrant yellow colours closely matched Torsten’s and were almost completely in tandem with his, but without the grey.

The reason for the decision is what we really have to worry about, Torsten said, the grey colours had suddenly won dominance.

Nova hardly took in the details as Marshall Marsh went on to go through what needed to be done and who was responsible for what. The big question was, would it be her or Torsten who piloted the vehicle up through the ice? They seemed like the only two logical possibilities. They were the ones who had done all the training and had come out top of the Ice Exploration Group. Nova started to feel the water around her flow past her overheating body. Surely they had a cooler in this room with so many of them in here? Maybe the cooler could not cope with so many excited bodies in a restricted space. Nova snapped her attention back to what Marsh was saying.

We are to use the new two body ice explorer, Marsh announced.

Nova gasped. She had only ever trained on the single body explorer, as had Torsten. Had others secretly been training on this twin explorer? Nova started to panic; maybe she would not be going up to the ice top after all!

Going for the two-body version meant a bigger vehicle and that meant a more difficult and perhaps a longer trip. As far as she knew it had never been properly tested.

No-one in their water world had ever breached the ice that capped their existence before. They knew from several probes how thick the ice was and they knew that there was nothing on the other side. There was absolutely nothing. It seemed to be a perfect vacuum as the Church had maintained for ever in their teachings. Theirs was the one and only existence, as the Church had always maintained and they seemed vindicated. The scientific confirmation that nothing was above the ice had simply solidified the Church’s suffocating political power. It confirmed the High Church Council’s view that the whole of existence was bound up in their water world, the ice covering them and the solid centre of the planet. To say anything else was pure heresy, punishable by a nasty death. There was nothing alive in existence except what was in their ocean and that was it. Science had proven it so there was no need to look any further. Only heaven and hell were not part of their observed existence, although some wondered whether the hot geysers that warmed and fed nutrients to their ocean world were the entries to hell.

As you know, there have been attempts before to go through the ice in a curve to out-flank our enemies, Marsh said. These have all ended in disaster and anyway there seemed to be no sensible way to use this as an outflanking tactic. We would have to go in force, not with vehicles holding just one or two marines. As you know the ice temporarily melts but then re-freezes behind the explorer vehicle so the vehicle is on its own and cannot do much even if it did successfully outflank the enemy. Too few could get through. So we decided that going up through the ice to the vacuum could be a better way, along the top of the ice and then down again, eventually constructing a sort of tunnel that could feed sufficient force behind their lines. However, the High Church Council forbade ever going outside our existence as sacrilege and this is why we could not even try it. That was until now.

There was a renewed outburst of cheering. Marsh waited for it to subside.

We also think that the one body explorer is too small and short on fuel capacity to go all the way to the top, Marsh continued. So we will have to use the very new two body version, which has a lot of benefits, but it is, of course, more complex and has not been fully tested. Being larger means that it is slower and needs more energy to get through the ice. Everyone here must work exclusively on the two-body explorer for the next week. It has to work perfectly by then. You all have roles to carry out to this end, which is why you are here and why you are receiving this briefing. The Explorer has to be ready to go on Thursday. It will be piloted by Torsten and Nova. These will be first of us ever to go to the edge of known existence!

Suddenly everyone turned to Torsten and Nova. Tentacles slapped at Nova’s tentacles from all directions in congratulations. Nova suddenly felt euphoric, her orange excitement blazing bright. Her big worry about being side-lined had suddenly just disappeared. This would be her big test. She added the glow of purple pride, along with niggling tinges of grey worry, which she tried to suppress. Torsten must have known about this! Why had he known and not her?

We can do it! We will be a great team. Torsten shouted through the din and his tentacle discs sucked on her tentacle to pull her in celebration. He had clearly noticed Nova’s worried colours and anyway they knew each other so well.

Nova really could not concentrate on the rest of the briefing. She knew that her task would be to make sure that she was fully up to speed with the new two-body tunnelling machine which she had only seen, but not trained on, up to now.

Marsh brought the meeting to a close. Everyone must be aware that this is top secret and nothing is to be discussed about this outside the people in this room. Marsh said. The following need to stay behind for some further information.

Marsh started to rattle out a handful of names. …Torsten, Nova,…..

Nova stayed floating in her corner as the majority left. She still was buzzing with excited bioluminescent colours. Even those now leaving talked excitedly to each other. Soon there were about half a dozen left, including herself and Torsten. Nova knew that she needed to act professionally so she spent the time calming her raging colour displays.

Close the doors, Marsh instructed. Nova pulled one shut and then pumped her body to swim closer to the front where Marsh floated. Nova was sure that Marsh could have touched both the floor and the ceiling of the room with his tentacles at the same time. He was massive! Nova was much smaller, which was an advantage for the explorer tunnelling machine.

The reason for the change in the Council’s ruling, Marsh began. Time seemed to almost stand still for Nova is that something has arrived in our water down out of the ice. It is a sort of probe on the end of a pole.

Do we know if it is from the Husks or the Middlers? Torsten asked. He looked solidly professional with thoughtful blues and calm greens with just the occasional flicker of orange.

We do not know where it is from, Marsh said. However it seems to come straight down through the ice, not at an angle from Husk waters, nor from Middler areas so we think that it has come from the top of the ice, the absence of everything. So either they are doing something a bit like we have theorised about for a long time, or it is something very different. Why the Husks or Middlers should warn us by putting a probe down through the ice into our part of the ocean is a complete mystery. They would want to keep it a secret from us if they really are trying out new techniques, not leave the probe so we could find it and disable it.

Who else could it be? Nova asked.

We have to be completely open minded. Is there something else that we do not understand that has done this, with motives that we also do not understand? Marsh said. The technology used looks very different from anything we have ever seen before. The metal alloy the probe is made of something that we have never seen in our world and uses very rare metals. Either the Husk’s have found a news source of metals and are using new technology that we do not know about, or…. Marsh paused. Or it originates from something we have never encountered before, which means it could even come from the vacuum, from the absence of everything.

There was a sharp intake of water all around the desk. Was he allowed to say that? This seemed to border on heresy. Surely he could be hung, drawn and quartered for saying that!

Surely it must be the Husks, or the Middlers, or another ocean nation? Torsten asked. There is nothing above the ice, by religious definition and scientific confirmation. Nothing exists outside of our existence. The very words convey its impossibility.

That is what the High Church Council said, Marsh answered with a knowing flash of a yellow and orange smile. So their presumption is that it is the Husks. If the Husks can do it then so must we. The Middlers are too far behind us technologically and rely on us to supply them. It cannot be the Middlers. I myself doubt that it is the Husks either, but if the High Church Council choose to take a different view, that is up to them.

So if it is the Council’s presumption that it is the Husks then that is what we have to presume as well. Nova suggested tentatively.

She sensed some different currents of thought here. Was Marsh challenging the High Church on something that was so fundamental? Nova’s respect for Marsh had suddenly gone up. Even Marsh did not have the authority to challenge fundamental religious dogma, or even suggest that he thought differently in any way. He may be a top military guy but he was not on the ruling High Church Council and they could sack him, or worse, on a whim if they wanted to.

I think that we must not presume anything but we must go prepared for whatever we might find, Marsh answered diplomatically. That means going with an open mind, even about the absence of everything. What I am telling you is just between you and me. I trust you all and I did not say anything untoward if anyone claims that I did. I remind you that this is totally secret and anything that is said in here stays in here, even if you are questioned by Church Councillors. He did not laugh. This was a deadly serious point. Marsh had to be seriously considering that the probe came from outside their known existence but had to protect himself from this thought crime. Nova remembered that Marsh had used the term ‘known existence’ as an unusual qualifier in his speech earlier. Never before had Nova ever heard Marsh express any doubt whatsoever about a key religious point. It was an absolutely central dogma that there was nothing outside their existence, capped by the ice.

By the end of the briefing it was clear that this was probably the most important exploration in all of history. Either the Husks had beaten them through the ice with totally new technology or it was something so strange that no-one there could really conceive what it could be. The Husks had overthrown their equivalent of the High Church Council some years ago in a bloody revolution. But their new governmental structure was even more restrictive and seemed unlikely to sanction something that was so bold, and so innovative, as drilling up completely through the ice and then back down again. Surely they did not have the technical expertise either. So, if it was not the Husks, who could have done this, perhaps the new rising power of the Easts? Again, it was highly unlikely. However, if she discovered that there was no ‘likely’ explanation then she was left only with the highly unlikely. She could see why Marsh had said that they needed to be open to anything and must rule nothing out.

Nova struggled to come to terms with the logic. She belonged to the most technologically advanced nation in the ocean world so by rights they should be the first ones to go through the ice. She was pretty sure that the Husks could not do it and in her view there was no-one else even in the running for this sort of thing. The Husks had discovered the need to exclude water to develop the most modern electrical machines but that was a very long time ago indeed. It had revolutionised technology but every nation now used at least some electricity and had done so for many years.

As they left the room at the end Nova wound three tentacles around Torsten’s. Many assumed that they were lovers. They were certainly very close, and physically they often held tentacles. However, they were not lovers in any sexual sense. Nova felt that Torsten was too uptight to go that far, at least as yet. Nova treasured their closeness and the fact that it was the closeness of platonic friends and as work colleagues, not as lovers. She sensed that Torsten enjoyed his freedom to cast his net widely with his admirers whilst he was young. She had to accept that she and Torsten were just the closest of colleagues.

No doubt this two-body tunneller will mean that we will have to be squashed together the whole time, Nova said to Torsten with a laugh. Torsten looked put out by this comment.

You will need to be careful where you put your tentacles, Torsten said frostily.

This will be a historic trip. I will put my tentacles where they need to go, if you are in the way or not! Nova said as she rippled with bright happy colours again. She had tried to suppress the worried grey feelings and the excitement had won out.

If we can ever tell people the secret, and assuming that we survive, we will be heroes, Torsten said. He now had many more of the grey ripples than her.

We are the best of the best, Nova said. If we can’t do it then no-one can. The odds are that the public will never ever know, especially as the High Church Council will definitely want to keep it a secret. This is a challenge for them and for our whole belief system.

No-one has tried to go to the ice top before. We will be the first whether anybody acknowledges it or not. We will know. Marsh will know. The team here will know. It will get out in rumours to others.

Do you know exactly what it was that came down through the ice? Nova queried.

No, the details of that are so secret that they have not even told me, Torsten shrugged his tentacles as if to say that he should have been told.

I knew even less about this than you.

We will find out only if Marsh deems it necessary to tell us.

Nova knew that by keeping information to himself Marsh was using information as power. Maybe one day she could take over from him and she would be much more open.

Tarna

Nova took her mini-sub to meet Tarna for a drink. Not many of them had mini-subs. The café was in a large cave with three separate entrances. Places with several exits were favoured by those associated with dissent. Groups clustered all over the floor, walls and ceiling with an electric orb in the middle for some extra yellow light. To human eyes it would look dim, but to Nova is was well lit.

Tarna was her oldest friend and a daughter of her Mum’s best friend. They went back a long time. Nova felt awful and her deep grey colours showed this, along with a red tinge of worry.

Tarna noticed this as soon as she came into the café.

You look nervous, Tarna said light-heartedly as they embraced tentacles as they had done ever since school days.

I have been confidentially warned that I must stop meeting you, Nova said abruptly. In my position I must comply. You know that I have to obey or face dire consequences. I feel awful.

Shit! Tarna’s colours suddenly changed from the bright carefree yellow and green ones to deathly grey. They must be after me. You are risking a lot even coming to tell me.

I had to come as we are such old friends, Nova said. I could not just stop without speaking to you, even if they find out and see this as me warning you. You mean so much to me. I could not just abandon you. Nova hugged Tarna’s tentacles and they echoed each other’s deeply sad colours.

This means that I am on their arrest list, Tarna said.

I know, Nova said unhappily. What have you been up to?

Nothing much, Tarna said, almost bursting in to tears. I have simply said a few things to close friends about the way we cannot speak out about anything without getting arrested. I have only spoken about the fact that we cannot speak out! Now it looks like they plan to arrest me!

You know that it is a serious crime to be critical in any way of the authorities, even just to friends. One of them must be an informer. If any of them have a close friend or relative in prison then they could be being blackmailed to inform. Even if you had spoken to no-one except your computer you could be deemed guilty of seditious thought. They track everything, you know.

Nova wracked her brains to try to see if there was a way out for Tarna. Maybe she would have just a few years in prison.

Do you know if I can flee to the rebels or go underground? Tarna was suddenly desperate.

I am no expert! Nova protested. However, I do know that your embedded microchip has to be used for all purchases since cash was outlawed several years ago. So now they know everything that you buy, where you buy and when you do anything. And recently they also enforced geo-positioning so they now know exactly where you are at all times. Only a few may have electricity, but the government snooping stations are everywhere. I do not see how you can go underground.

I refused to take the new chip when they introduced geo-positioning, Tarna responded. The authorities would have noted that, even though she had a right to refuse, in theory.

Well every new chip has it and even without being tracked you still cannot buy any food, travel anywhere or do anything without the authorities knowing all the details about what you buy and where from. Nova pointed out. You cannot even use a stolen chip as every chip is allocated to a known person and if it is not embedded in their body then it is automatically disabled. You would have to have a close friend who would do every purchase for you and hide you, and that immediately fully incriminates them as well. I would love to help more, but I cannot. If I had any sense I would leave now, but you are too important to me for me to do that. Nova was near to tears, as was Tarna. However they both knew that it was too serious not to explore the logical options.

I know that there is an underground network that helps people escape, Tarna responded. But I have no idea how to get in contact with them.

If you knew how to reach them then the authorities would know it too. Nova pointed out.

"Look, you are a