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Acadia: Chaos In The Cosmos
Chapter 1: The Recruit

Chapter 1: The Recruit

Nia was sinking.

The ocean's waves were cresting around her underneath the gaze of a pitiless sun. Her lower half, submerged, was frigid, cold as ice, writhing beneath the blue. The water's chilly tingle, almost electric, traveled up her skin till her head collapsed beneath the waves. Then, just after she descended, spurred by instinct, she looked back up to see the sky sparkling above, caught in the distorting lens of the water's film; the sky seemed to be fluorescing from emerald to dark blue. She had done it a thousand times before but couldn't help but think: What if this is the last time?

That high up from the ocean's floor, the water fought her with an intense upward rush. But she thrust against it, turned to face the seafloor, and began kicking with the fury of a fighter. Nearby, schools of fish swam past. They emerged from the hazy blue nothingness and, farther away, disappeared into it again. Below, gray shadows were moving. Sharks! She thought as her lungs convulsed with dread, but she calmed herself, realizing that they were just Manta rays.

Deeper into the depths, she descended. Then, more mindful of the time, a glance at her diving watch revealed 120 seconds had elapsed. She was nearing the bottom but paused her descent momentarily to look around and caught sight of a hole several meters ahead. The hole looked like a warped ring with a mouth wide enough to fit a school bus through. Along its rim ran a jagged edge with large, slender chunks of sharp rock protruding. The inside looked dim and foreboding. Little light leaked through.

I've dived a thousand times before. Relax, she thought. But as she swam toward the hole, she felt the waves of fear wash over her, progressively getting stronger. Her chest grew more tense as she tried to calm herself, but the uncertainty of what lay ahead wouldn't allow her to. She was racing against time, had no scuba gear, and was free diving. The only thing keeping the oxygen in her lungs and the ocean out was sheer willpower.

But even her will was ultimately governed by time. Her watch was ticking, tapping rhythmically against her wrist with thumps as gentle as raindrops. But each tick meant one less breath. Two things were impending: death or escape. But before either, she had to enter the cave and retrieve something.

She crossed into its mouth, eyes closed, twisting her body into an awkward shape to avoid being cut by the stalactite-like edge. The mouth swallowed her in a gulp. Then the current slowed again to a speed so slow it was soothing. She reflexively opened her eyes and saw that she'd entered a new environment. It was nearly pitch black. She flicked on her headlamp. Its beam stretched ahead far and wide, illuminating the roughly cylindrical cave walls. They were rough and bumpy, making it difficult to find what she was looking for: her little sister Acadia's bracelet.

The week before, Nia remembered going diving in the cave with her sister. And Acadia had hit her hand against the cave walls and accidentally knocked it loose. They searched for it then but couldn't find it. Acadia claimed it didn't bother her, but Nia knew she was lying.

So Nia searched for a glint of gold along the rough ridges of the walls.

It was hard to ignore just how quiet it was down there. It was so silent that Nia could almost hear her thoughts echo off the walls.

Her lungs were feeling stressed after such a long time of holding air in, but relief coursed through her when she saw something glinting in the misty depths of the cave floor. She kicked her way down, and there it was—the bracelet, perched along the edge of a rocky bump. She stretched out her hand and yanked it toward herself, taking a moment to inspect it. It looked undamaged. Its golden sheen gave off a muted glow in the shower of her headlight. Her clenched lips spread wide into a smile as she turned and kicked back toward the exit.

As she went, she felt a strange tremor in the water. Is that a quake? She thought. But then she heard a sound coming from behind and turned to see a massive sea goblin, with its mouth gaping wide, revealing row upon row of large triangular teeth. The beast was the dread of the ocean and conjured nightmares among sailors and divers alike. Its bulbous head attached to a sinuous, snake-like body swam in their darkest dreams.

Nia started kicking more furiously than ever. But it gained on her. Even with her flippers, She could never outswim the beast for long. It was nipping at her heels in mere moments as if it was toying with her.

Right before it was about to bite her, she flipped downward and folded her body into the posture of a frog, pulling her legs close to her chest; then, she kicked with all the energy she had in her. Her body raced toward the ghostly floor; she twirled around 180 degrees. So that she was still moving head first toward the floor, but her torso faced the sea goblin. It lunged at her. Then she pulled the spear gun from her back, aimed it at the sea goblin, and fired reluctantly. The spear torpedoed into its head. It wriggled violently at first, then less so until its body was stilled by death.

She swam through the inky blobs of blood oozing from the sea goblin out the cave's mouth. Natural light greeted her as she raced toward the surface. Her lungs were screaming for air when she breached the water's surface, and she swallowed oxygen in a series of rapid gulps.

Yet another brush with death, she thought.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Exhausted from all the strenuous swimming, she allowed herself to float atop the surface for a while. Her body lay still but for the jiggling of the water that rippled her flesh. Her eyes kept moving, though, darting across the sky, watching the setting sun before landing on the birds above.

The birds, whatever kind they were, appeared to be fuzzy white dots against the scattering rays of dimming daylight. One of the birds loitered above her, rolling around in circles. Something about it was off, though; it lacked the gracefulness that usually characterized the movements of birds. Nia wondered if it was injured.

Oh, poor thing, she thought.

She also wondered what it thought of her from up there looking down at her, just a tiny dot against the vast blue.

Her mind quickly slipped from the heavens to the heat; the sun was scalding.

Though it was harsh, it made her grin: The contrast of feelings, from the chilly depths of the sea to the sun's furnace on the surface. The extreme opposition of sensations made her feel the weightiness of living more intensely.

Ultimately, life is a cloud of sensation from beginning to end; some periods are cloudier or clearer than others. But in some moments, time staggers to a halt and remains frozen for a while. And she felt as though she got to live for an eternity in the space it took to draw a few breaths. She was frozen in a feeling.

As she laid there bobbing around, with the occasional splash of water washing across her face, out of the hazy gray of her periphery, she discerned something appearing on the horizon. It was fuzzy at first, but it took shape quickly, morphing from a shadowy blob into a boat's broad mast crowned with a fisherman's flag towering on a beam above it. She felt relieved. Initially, she planned to let the current drag her closer and closer to shore for a while and then swim in when the distance wasn't too great, but with a boat on its way; she might be able to catch a ride.

After a bit more bobbing around and some kicking, waving, and screaming, the boat pulled up to her. A young man standing on the edge of the deck stretched a pole toward her. But the haze of the sun descending behind him sealed his face from her view. Instead, she could only see two large, veiny arms extending along the pole. She grabbed her end, and his arms began retracting. He pulled and pulled until he yanked her onboard.

The boat was larger than she imagined it would be. The deck was littered with empty fishing cages, small and large.

She dropped her spear gun, slid across the deck, and rested against the railing.

The man who had pulled her up followed.

"Are you alright?" He asked, leaning over slightly to get a better look at her.

"I'm fine. Thanks for the assist."

"Looks like you would've gotten a nasty sunburn if you were out there any longer."

She chuckled and shrugged.

"What were you doing out here floating around?"

"I went diving."

"Oh, that explains the spear gun you left over there," he said, pointing to the spot where Nia dropped it.

"Oh, I'll get that," Nia said, grabbing the rail to climb to her feet.

"Don't worry," he replied, waving Nia off as he ran over to grab it.

Then he hurried back to her and dropped it in her hand.

She nodded a thank you.

"Where's the spear?"

"Deep inside a sea goblin."

"I really need to use the bathroom," Nia said, wobbling her legs.

"Sure, it's downstairs. You can't miss it," he said, pointing at the closed-off corner with a nondescript wooden door.

"Thanks. I'll be right back."

"Hey, be careful in there," he replied, smiling.

"Don't worry. I know how to use a bathroom," she quipped, playfully rolling her eyes.

She walked downstairs, looked around, and then slipped into the bathroom. It was a tiny room with a toilet squeezed into its corner.

To her dismay, the toilet paper roll was finished. So she began shuffling around for a spare roll, racing against her incoming number two. First, she checked the cupboard over the sink. Then she looked in the drawer underneath but still found nothing.

It didn't help that the ship was rocking back and forth. Nia felt a little nauseous. Finally, once it was getting hard to hold it in, she stomped her feet in a fit of frustration. Then she noticed the floorboard felt hollow. She stooped down to check again and gently rapped her knuckles against the floor, and sure enough, she heard that hollow ring again.

She stooped down and realized there was a little door in the floor with a tiny latch that she reached for. The door swung open with little exertion. Her anticipatory smile faded quickly. Instead of neatly stacked rolls of toilet paper, she was staring at a bunch of wires, canisters, and other strange equipment. She jiggled the items around to see if there was any toilet paper underneath. But there was nothing else.

Curious, she picked up one of the canisters and twirled it around in her palm. It was only when she hung it upside down and saw a pin dangle from it that she realized it was a grenade. She was looking at a pile of dozens of grenades and what must have been explosive wiring. The canister she held was branded with the seal of the infamous cult, the Syndicate.

Her breath grew heavy, and she could feel sweat beading along her hairline. Her wide, quivering eyes were locked in a blank stare.

Knock! Knock! The door shook.

"Anybody in there?" A voice rang out.

"Yes, yes!" Nia replied.

"You alright? You sound a little off," the voice boomed back.

"I'm good; just a bit backed up."

"Oh, Okie Dokie," replied the voice, trembling with laughter. "You'll get through it." The pitter-patter of footsteps then grew distant, which calmed her down a little.

Nia closed the door in the ground. She had suddenly lost any desire to relieve herself. She needed to get off the ship immediately, so she pushed open the bathroom door slowly, only to feel several hands yank her from behind it and throw her down on the ground outside. She looked up. Standing above her were a bunch of the crewmates she had seen on deck earlier. Their eyes were filled with cold, steely stares. One of them marched into the bathroom, pulled the door in the ground, and looked inside the floor.

"She moved the grenades around," he yelled furiously.

"She must have opened it and saw," one of the men replied.

Another voice followed, "I told you she sounded weird in there like she was up to something. When I knocked, she was talking about being backed up. Yeah, right," he chuckled loudly along with the others.

"We can't let her get off this ship alive," said one of the men, brandishing a knife.

The sight of the long, sharp blade dangling mere feet above her shot a series of chills through Nia's body. She shivered until one of the men kicked her in the head, and her vision blurred into darkness. 

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