Otto didn’t know where he was.
There was a distinct pulling sensation over his entire body, like he was caught in a skin-tight net that was being yanked forward. He felt momentum, but when he opened his eyes, there was nothing to determine if he was actually moving. He was in a featureless void, one where he felt no air on his skin, had no urge to breathe, nothing. All he felt was that pull, like gravity was working harder on him than ever.
A white light appeared in the distance. It was a miniscule blip at first, but by the time he blinked once, it had grown to the size of the sun about to consume him. When he blinked next, he arrived.
His feet were on white tile. The entire room was made up of it, blindingly bright. Two fluorescent bars overhead illuminated it to the point that he instinctively winced on arrival, slowly letting his eyes adjust to the brightness.
The room was unmarked aside from the floor; while the entire room was made up of the same white tile, the ceiling and walls were eggshell smooth. Once his eyes stopped yelling at him, he could make out intricate carvings on the floor, swirling hairline patterns that he had to squint to properly make out.
A seam in the wall split in two like automatic doors while he inspected the floor, revealing a hallway. Otto’s head snapped up and he stood to attention.
Two figures approached, and he immediately identified both as Jarran.
They both had the long, pointed ears that tended to flop over on themselves. Their skin was faintly green and pockmarked, and were largely bald all over. The one in the front had a few wispy strands of hair sticking out of the top in every which direction, but that was all, not even eyebrows.
The wispy haired Jarran wore a white lab coat with a single blue stripe around it. He – and Otto was pretty sure it was a he – towered over the Jarran trailing him by approximately one inch, making him around five feet even. A gleaming monocle hovered in front of one eye with no chain or hook to be seen, and it moved slightly to stay directly in front of his eye, shifting up and down as he walked.
The one behind also looked to be male, but with no hair to be seen. He didn’t wear a lab coat but a simple white button up shirt and black slacks, with shoes that resembled tabis on his feet. He carried an overstuffed clipboard, and was rapidly making notes and flipping through even as he followed. The front Jarran was visually much older, but the back one looked far, far more harried.
“Finally!” The front Jarran said with a scowl. He walked right up to Otto and looked up at him, grabbing a long, thin stick of something from his coat pocket and popping it in the corner of his mouth. It looked like a custom-rolled cigarette, and he started chewing on it.
“What took you so long?” The man demanded. He grabbed Otto by the shoulder without waiting for an answer and started pulling him along towards the open passageway. Otto stumbled along, surprised by the feverish pace. The clipboard-wielding Jarran fell into step behind them.
“I put in a request over a month ago saying I needed a bondsman immediately – not soon, not whenever they get a chance, now – and what do those lazy, bureaucratic mush-chewers tell me? “Oh, don’t worry about it, Tor Ameris, we’ll have someone for you immediately! Yes of course we’re sure Tor Ameris, the humans always accept right away!” He made a face of disgust and chomped hard on the stick, gritting his teeth, severing it. The remains of the stick fell onto the floor. He stopped and turned to Otto.
“Do you know what I’ve had to deal with for the past month?” He demanded with a glare.
Otto took an involuntary step back and felt himself break out into sweat.
“Um,” He stammered, “No?”
The Jarran looked at him for a few more moments and grunted. He turned and kept walking.
They continued walking at a pace just high enough to be uncomfortable. The hallways they passed through had curved ceilings, like they were walking through tubes, and were the same pure white as the room he arrived in. Fluorescent bars overhead illuminated the space to a blinding degree, a new one every few paces.
Another wall opened before them, this one completely unilluminated. The light from the hallway they were in showed the immediate ground was made up of metal grates with small holes, and the walls were reflective, but beyond that, it was dark. Otto hesitated at the entrance but pressed on, and when he opened his mouth to ask a question, it stayed that way.
Lights bloomed from the darkness, but not on the inside. The walls were glass, looking out into the deep ocean. Where the glass tubes were adjoined to one another, lights on the outside turned on one at a time, illuminating the waters around them.
Strange fish with elongated limbs and large eyes darted away from the tube en masse. They came in all shapes, sizes, and colors; many were bioluminescent, leaving trails of color behind them as they fled. Some slithered like eels, clawed forward like Olympic swimmers, or were propelled by nothing at all. They were eerie, alien creatures, ones that reminded him of deep-sea images he had learned about in school and seen in museums, and from what he could gather, there was good reason for that. The light only traveled so far, until like a curtain at the edge of the world, the inky blackness remained eternal.
“Tor Ameris,” Otto said. The Jarran was looking at his gaping with a smug smirk. “How deep underwater are we?”
“Just call me Ameris.” He said with a brief scowl. “Tor is a title, and an unnecessary one at that. As for how deep we are? In earth units, approximately twelve thousand meters.”
Otto’s eyebrows shot up and he stared outside, getting close to the glass. Twelve thousand meters was deeper than the deepest parts of Earth, and the Jarrans had built a structure down here. He felt a wave of claustrophobia wash over him, but he did his best to shake it off and not think about the immense pressure of the water around them, or what would happen if the tubes cracked under it…
A vast shape passed over the tube at the very edge of the light. Otto could barely make out its shape; it was long and bulbous while still being at least a hundred feet long. The light glinted off its scales which were a deep green and a little bit transparent, giving glimpses of blue veins running through the body. A low rumble emitted from its direction, causing vibrations all over his body.
Otto stumbled back from the glass to the center of the tube.
“What was that?” He asked. His voice came out squeakier than he intended, but he was too afraid to care.
Ameris glanced in its direction, unconcerned.
“Oh, don’t worry about them. They’re completely harmless. To us. I’m sure they’re quite terrifying to most of the fauna down here.” He kept looking out of the corner of his eye. “And very yummy to the rest. Anyway, we have places to be. Quit gawking!” He started walking down the hallway again, resuming his feverish pace.
Otto blinked a few times and watched the other Jarran pass him by, not even glancing up from his clipboard while he made notes. He hurried to catch up with Ameris, falling into step beside him.
“There are things down here that eat those?” He asked, now glancing at the water around them constantly, as if afraid another would pop out of nowhere and attack them.
Ameris looked a bit annoyed. “Of course they are prey to some creatures. Did you expect fish that small to be the top of the food chain?” He scoffed, shaking his head.
“We study deep sea gigantism here. Weren’t you told?” he said in a tone that he believed Otto absolutely had been told, and was just stupid or didn’t listen.
“No.” Otto said, still reeling a bit from the information. “I wasn’t told at all. My class was affixed less than twenty minutes ago. I was about to be teleported to-somewhere on my home planet when it got rerouted here.” The words ‘home planet’ felt stiff and awkward coming out of his mouth, but Ameris didn’t seem to notice. Instead, a glower covered his face.
“Bah. Of course you weren’t told.” He grumbled, speeding up a bit to Otto’s chagrin. “Those idiots would send me someone completely green, probably as a poorly conceived intimidation tactic. Well, no matter. Your presence is more than sufficient for your task. You’ll pick it up easily I’m sure.”
“…Right.” Otto said. “What am I doing, exactly?” He asked in the most polite way he could muster, all too aware of stories – likely false ones, he knew – of Jarrans, their tempers, and how they exercised them. He didn’t exactly think that Ameris would vaporize him with a laser gun or a magic spell or something, but he was a little bit nervous regardless. It’s not like death was the only consequence for being rude, even if it wasn’t intentional.
“You’ll be informed.” Ameris distractedly replied, reaching out and touching something in the air that Otto couldn’t see. He didn’t talk any more on the subject, leaving Otto to wallow in the silence that ensued. He glanced back to the other Jarran a few times, but he seemed so engrossed in whatever he was doing that he never spoke or even looked up.
The clear tube lead to, finally, a real complex. Through the glass he could see a massive grey rectangle that looked like it was plopped right into the ocean. It didn’t have any features to make him think it was Jarran in nature; it wasn’t technologically impressive or magical to the naked eye. It looked like a concrete box.
Another set of doors opened, leading to a much more normal space to Otto’s sensibilities. It was similar to a government facility, or a hospital, made up of white – but not blindingly so – tile. The walls were beige, and it was a very vertical space: they were entering from the bottom floor, but when Otto looked up, he saw multiple floors going up, with railings along the edges. A central stone staircase lead to the following floor, and a series of what he assumed were elevators were set into the far wall. The space was eerily empty, without a single soul in sight. Most disturbing to Otto were the large windows on each floor that looked out into the endless black ocean, both because you couldn’t see anything out of them, and…
“Aren’t those windows kind of…dangerous?” He asked, pointing at one. The tube was one thing, but the windows made him more uncomfortable for a reason he couldn’t quite place. Ameris glanced over, swiping something out of his face.
“Those? Of course not. Why would they be dangerous?” he said with a quirked eyebrow.
“If we’re as deep as you said, isn’t the pressure a problem? Glass seems like a fragile material, is all.”
Ameris rolled his eyes. “Perhaps on Earth glass would be a problem, but not here. That glass is as strong as the stone it’s surrounded by. The ‘guns’ on your world you all seem so afraid of wouldn’t be able to pierce through it in a thousand rounds.” He said with distaste. He gave Otto an odd look. “Besides, of everyone present, I’m not sure why you are the one worried about the deep sea.”
Before he could ask about whatever that meant, Ameris’ eyes flickered up and he started off straight ahead towards the elevators. Otto followed close behind, dizzy from how quickly he was being given information and yanked away, but desperately trying to keep up. He didn’t know what would happen if he made a bad impression, and he felt like he was off to a poor start.
“Come. You’re coming? Good.” Ameris said with a glance back after he had already walked halfway there. The rightmost elevator opened, and another Jarran exited. This one looked younger than Ameris with a thin layer of stubble on his head, and a pair of thin rectangular glasses. He wore a lab coat without a stripe, and had a clipboard of his own tucked under one arm.
“Afternoon, Ameris.” He said when he approached, giving him a small bow, which Ameris waved off in irritation.
“Quit it with that, Karro. Waste of everyone’s time.” He grumbled, gesturing to Otto, who stood awkwardly. “Your bondsman I promised finally arrived, though he was late.”
Karro sighed and glanced at Otto apologetically. “They’re called Agreed, Ameris. Please try getting it right, at least while they’re present.”
Ameris frowned and crossed his arms. “Well, back when I was a young scientist if he was this late-“
“Yes, yes. We know.” Karro said. “The Jarran Government has taken a much softer stance, we’ve heard it before. Thank you for bringing him.” He glanced at Otto again. “It is ‘he’ right?”
“Of course it’s a he! Do you think I’d mix up-“
“Yes, that’s right.” Otto interrupted. Ameris didn’t seem to mind getting cut off, smirking at Karro in the intergalactically common expression of ‘told you.’
Something seemed to catch Ameris’ attention and he grabbed Otto’s arm hard, leading him towards Karro.
“Okay. Delivery complete. My job is done.” He said. “Don’t let him die. Or do; there isn’t much of a punishment for it in their contract.”
Otto’s head snapped to him in alarm, but Karro just shook his head and sighed.
“You’ll be fine.” He assured Otto. “You’re surplus to requirements, to be honest. Follow me.”
They headed up the stairs, to a space with hardwood floors. It felt weird to be walking on wood at the bottom of the ocean, but those were his Earth sensibilities. What did he know?
Karro was much less intimidating, and to Otto’s relief, actually answered his questions.
“You’re security.” Karro said when he asked. Otto blinked in reply, looking down at himself. The Jarran gave him an amused look. “It’s true. You might not feel like it yet – I take it you’re new – but you are. Don’t worry, you won’t really be doing any security. It’s just a precaution for while we start undergoing real research, the stuff we came here to do.”
Otto cocked his head. “What have you been doing since I arrived?” He asked.
Karro shrugged. “This and that. Studying samples brought back by our underwater crawlers, recording the fauna that pass by, that kind of thing. Not what we came here for.”
Otto felt a pit in his stomach. “What did you come here for, exactly?”
Karro grinned, and there was a hint of mania in it.
“The whole ecosystem. We want to record everything about it, from the smallest single cell organisms, to the biggest predators. Especially the big ones. Deep sea gigantism is the focus, but to understand that, we need a comprehensive view of the system as a whole.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“How do you plan to study them, exactly?”
“Depends on the size. The truly massive ones? Remote operated mechanical drones. The ones who are merely big?” This time the mania was in full force. “We’ll lure them in and study them in person.”
Otto stopped walking. “And I’m here for security?”
Karro nodded. “Don’t worry. We’re overprepared for this. You might think it sounds crazy – the government did, which is why they only approved it if you came along – but we have our own tricks. Even if things go truly, terribly wrong, we’ll be perfectly safe, and you won’t even need to lift a finger.”
He side eyed Otto. “…but just in case, and for the government’s sanity, you’re here. I take it you have an aquatic class of some kind?” Otto nodded hesitantly. “See? Even if worst came to worst, you would be fine. I feel safer already.”
They approached a, finally, normal door, which swung open to reveal what looked like a casual conference room. There was a couch with a large, impossibly thin screen hovering just in front of the wall it faced, and a coffee table in front of it. Beyond that was a more formal, long table covered in documents and folders with chairs along the sides and one at each head. The far wall was made of whiteboard or some equivalent, and had notes scribbled all over it.
In the no-man’s-land between the more casual and more serious spaces, was a strip of thick, tall brown rug.
Otto’s eyes fixed on it immediately, and more than anything said or shown to him that day, it made him nervous.
He entered after Karro and carefully took his shoes off, placing them beside five or so pairs of the tabis the Jarran following Ameris had been wearing. Hesitantly, he removed his socks as well. Karro nodded in approval.
The table was occupied by five Jarran men and women, the latter gender taking the majority. Female Jarran were usually difficult to distinguish from male aside from their voices and some cultural dress and appearance choices, since their bodies were very similar. When clothed, at least. Otto still thought he could tell them apart, thankfully.
Karro approached, stopping for a moment on the rug. He closed his eyes and released a sigh of contentment before continuing on. Otto shuddered and stepped up to it. He felt like he was about to walk across a bed of coals. The man ahead of him was surreptitiously glancing back at him, waiting for his reaction.
Otto stepped forward, his bare foot sinking into the rug. After a moment, he brought the other one on as well. He looked up at Karro with raised eyebrows.
“This is a really nice rug.” He said, and he wasn’t even lying. It was a nice rug. It was extremely soft, like he had stepped on a cloud.
Karro grinned at him. “You might be new to being an Agreed, but with compliments like that, you’ll go far. I didn’t even need to tell you to take your socks off.”
Otto blushed. “I had some advice.”
“Hey everyone,” Karro called out to the conference table. They had noticed their arrival at this point, but didn’t stop in their discussion until he spoke. “Meet…” he paused, frowning, and turned back, whispering. “Did I really never ask your name?”
“Otto.” He whispered back stiffly, all-too aware of the eyes on him. “Just Otto is fine.”
“Otto!” Karro announced, gesturing with both hands. “He’s our Agreed, and arrived not long ago. Ameris fetched him and brought him to me.”
Everyone at the table grimaced. One woman spoke up. “My condolences.” She said. “He can be a lot.”
“It…wasn’t that bad.” Otto said, but his heart wasn’t in it, and they could tell.
Another woman sighed. “Did he call you a bondsman?” She asked.
He winced. “…Yes.”
They all nodded. “Don’t mind that. The older Jarran have a…different mindset on Agreed. We’re happy to have you on board, Otto.” One of the men said, standing and approaching to shake his hand. He took it and shook, and the Jarran kept shaking for precisely fifteen seconds, letting go immediately after. When he noticed the look Otto was giving him, he appeared confused.
“What?” He asked.
Otto looked down at his hand. “That was…” he weighed how to say it kindly. “A little long.”
The man frowned. “I read in a textbook on humans that fifteen seconds is considered polite.”
Karro ignored the comment and started pointing at each Jarran in turn. They all wore similar clothing, white lab coats with generic, monochrome shirts and pants underneath. Their feet were bare, which Otto thought was kind of gross. Wouldn’t it stink up the room?
“That’s Jola, female, Yaris, male, Maleera, female, Braes, female, and who’s hand you just shook, Lapo. Male.”
“He can tell our genders, Karro. Don’t be patronizing.” Maleera said. She had no hair, but instead had some kind of paint on the top of her head, like she was wearing a black bowl. It was…bold
Karro gave Otto a questioning look, who nodded. The Jarran shrugged at Maleera in response.
“Some can’t tell. I thought I’d save us all the trouble.”
“I appreciate it.” Otto said. Karro smiled wide. Lapo was still frowning, looking at his hand every once in a while, muttering something about ‘fifteen seconds’ being the perfect duration.
They sat at the conference table and started explaining things, answering his questions when he had them.
“Is Ameris a…bad boss?” he asked. He hoped he wasn’t overstepping his bounds, but they had all been very casual thus far, so he was optimistic.
“Not…bad.” Jola said. The others had sour looks on their faces. “Ameris is complicated.”
“He’s insane.” Yaris muttered. Of them all, he was the only Jarran with any facial hair, and it wasn’t much. A few small hairs on his chin and upper lip, he was the quietest of the bunch.
Maleera hit him on the shoulder lightly. “Oh, hush. Don’t scare the poor boy. He’s not insane.”
“Eccentric is a better word.” Braes said. She wore minor jewelry in the form of two dangling hoops on each ear. It was a very Earth fashion choice, and put him somewhat at ease.
“Ameris is a genius.” She went on to explain. “He has published more papers, pushed the boundaries of science, and done more for our understanding of the galaxy than any of us ever will, in all likelihood. The only problem is…he’s from a different time.”
“A time with less morals, less oversight, and more budget.” Jaro said. The others nodded.
“He has done incredible things, but he wants things done his way, and his way just isn’t feasible anymore.” Karro said. “He’s harmless, really, but if he calls you a bondsman or starts ranting about the government, just keep quiet and wait patiently for it to end.”
“You shouldn’t have much interaction with him anyway. You’ll be with us most of the time.” Maleera said.
Otto felt a bit better when he heard that, but something else was gnawing at him.
“How long am I going to be here?” he asked. They glanced among themselves.
“Do you…?” Braes said, looking at Karro, who shrugged.
“I’ll check.” Jaro said, blinking in a strange pattern before swiping and tapping on something he couldn’t see. Her expression fell, and with it, Otto’s hopes.
She glanced up at him. He braced for the worst.
“…Two weeks.” She eventually said.
He blinked. “That’s…”
“Too short.” Yaris grumbled. Maleera hit him on the arm, but the others nodded awkwardly in agreement.
“It’s a bit short.” Karro said. “Hard to get any real work done in two weeks. Your Donor probably only allowed that long because you’re a new Agreed.”
“That’s not in the contract.” Yaris muttered sullenly. Maleera, predictably, hit him.
Karro sighed and rubbed the top of his head. “Yes, well, the Donor has near final say when it comes to Agreed from Earth. It can do things like that, and without pushback from the Architects, that’s how it is.” He turned to Otto.
“You’ll probably go home for at least another two weeks, and then, we’ll call you back.” He sounded apologetic for it.
Otto didn’t know how to react. He felt like he should put on a show of being sympathetic to their plight but…he was expecting something worse. Much worse. In his most vile nightmares, they would have said either ‘forever’ or ‘until the research is done’ which could be effectively infinite, and his more realistic ones still had him pegged for a couple months. Two weeks hurt, but…it was much, much better than he ever expected.
He managed a slow nod, trying to keep his face from expressing too much relief and joy. They all seemed pretty bummed about it, and he kind of understood. They seemed passionate about their research, and without him present, they couldn’t continue.
Not that it bothered him much.
“Can’t you guys get someone else to act as security in the time I’m not available?” He asked. Surely there were other aquatic Agreed – in fact, he knew there were. It wasn’t a particularly uncommon variation, and he still didn’t understand why he was necessary for this whole operation to function.
Karro sighed. “Maybe. It’s possible, but unlikely. The skillset we requested is rather narrow, and most of the Agreed from the feeder planets with it have already been snatched up for other, similar things. Ones deemed more important than ecological research.” He added with a scowl.
“Plenty of Agreed have aquatic skillsets, but very few can operate usefully at the crushing depths we work in.” Braes added.
“Right.” He said. “And I can do that?”
They collectively shrugged. “You’re supposed to be able to. If not, well, the Engineers really messed up. That was nearly number one on the list.”
“What was number one?”
“They had to be a fresh agreed, one who just accepted their contract within the past couple months and had never been on an off-planet mission before.” Karro quoted. Everyone gave him an odd look. “Don’t look at me like that,” he said defensively, “Ameris insisted on it.”
Otto cocked his head.
“Let’s show Otto around!” Maleera interjected with a smile, waving everyone to the door. She seemed the most motherly of the bunch, though he couldn’t tell by how much she was older, if at all.
The group took him through the facility, and though they couldn’t show him everything, they went for the hits.
A room filled with machinery and equipment that he didn’t recognize whatsoever but seemed scientific in nature, bias confirmed by their elaboration that it was a room to study samples from the field. A hospital staffed by a single, extremely bored Jarran man who barely glanced in their direction when they walked in, nearly nodding off at the table he was propping his head up on.
They showed him the sleeping quarters, including leading him to his own. Apparently he got his own room which was much better than he expected, even if it was a bit small, the researchers shared a room, their beds only separated by curtains. The bathrooms were communal, but it was still a nice bonus.
“Uh, I didn’t bring any clothes. Or anything else, for that matter.”
Karro smirked and pointed at a closet which Otto assumed to be empty.
“Every day that will fill up with new clothes, or clean the ones inside. There’s a pad on the side for you to input your size and style preferences, or you can let it default. I’d let it default; sometimes the way it interprets your style suggestions get weird.” Karro shuddered, and Otto decided as long as the clothing was reasonable, he would leave it default. A man didn’t get that haunted look for nothing.
“Toiletries and stuff will be provided as well. If there’s anything else you need, let us know. We haven’t had many humans here, recently.”
Otto raised his eyebrows at that. “Really?” he asked. “Your English is so good, though. I figured you all had humans here all the time.”
The group of them laughed as one, sharing knowing looks between each other. Otto blushed, and Karro patted him on the shoulder.
“We’re not speaking English. We’re speaking Jarran; the Donor is translating everything for you, and for us.“
Now that he mentioned it, the words they said didn’t quite match up with the movements their mouths made. He was surprised he didn’t notice earlier; now that it was pointed out, it was very obvious.
“I can’t believe I didn’t notice that.” He said. “The translation is so seamless. You guys even understand slang.”
Jora shrugged to the side, poking around his room out of curiosity. “We made your Donor, so it already understands Jarran perfectly. Better than us, probably. From there, it spent a lot of time and effort learning every language possible on Earth to the point that it could translate between the two seamlessly, and that includes slang. We’re using slang that you’ve never heard of, and it’s interpreting it for you.”
Otto had never been a big fan of the Donor. It seemed like an overbearing, technological and magical behemoth that invaded people’s minds to unknown ends.
Even he had to admit: That was pretty cool. One thing confused him, though.
“How am I getting it translated by the Earth Donor? Is it like…in my head?”
Karro looked amused. “Not exactly. It’s more like you have a…cable connected to it. Your – and our – words are sent to the local, very limited Donor, who sends it to the Earth Donor, and gets a response back. All of that happens essentially instantaneously. Faster than the speed of thought.”
Otto was astounded. “That’s incredible.” He said. He meant it, too, which felt strange.
“The Donors are the pinnacle of Jarran achievement.” Braes said seriously. “Without them, we wouldn’t be anywhere close to what we are now. We would never have contacted your planet; we wouldn’t even know you exist. They operate on a level beyond us, beyond what we can fathom.”
There it was. Otto shivered again, once again unnerved by the Donor. He knew other planets had them, planets with contracts especially – ‘feeder planets’ as the Jarran and Angel referred to them – but he wasn’t aware they were utilized by the Jarrans as well. That explained all the swiping at the air he was seeing, at least.
They moved on to the cafeteria, the bathrooms – very, very important, he realized once they showed him. He made sure to memorize the Jarran symbol for it so he could find one should the need arise. The alternative would be unpleasant any time, but surrounded by aliens, it would be even worse. He didn’t want to color their opinions on humans for years or decades to come. Jarrans lived a long time.
The most astounding room, though, they saved for last.
To call it a room felt limiting. It was massive, the largest chamber he had entered since the main hub. It had the same technology as the research chamber, but spread out on the fringes. Everything was on the fringes; chairs, tables, equipment, everything. The center of the room was dominated by one thing: A massive pool of water.
It was pitch black like the ocean outside, and almost perfectly still. When he got close to the railing, a high ring of glass almost as tall as Otto – which meant it was comfortably over even the taller Jarrans – he saw tiny disturbances in the water, like it was vibrating.
“The massive creatures make these little ripples.” Jola said to his side. She looked eagerly at the water. “They move the water in such massive amounts that even here, after isolating the water from the rest of the ocean, shows the effects. Cool, right?”
“It’s something.” He muttered while he stared. His mind had a hard time fathoming a creature so massive, even after seeing one he considered gigantic earlier. That was part of the problem, actually; he had seen how massive that was, and these were an order of magnitude larger.
Above the water was a machine. It glowed in places from both mechanical and magical lights, denoting different things that Otto didn’t understand and would likely need a PhD in an alien university to decipher. It had a claw, a spear, a scalpel the size of a car, and more. It looked terribly complex, and all of the researchers were looking at it with wistful admiration.
“There she is.” Lapo said. “The thing that makes this all possible.” He looked over to Otto. “Anything we need to do, this bad boy is capable. And on the off chance it isn’t capable? It will make itself capable.” He sighed and looked back at it. Otto thought the corners of his eyes might be misting up. “Now that is a machine.”
“If there’s anything I’ll thank Ameris for, it’s that.” Yaris said. He shed a bit of his grumpiness when he looked at the construct. “Without him, we would have never gotten approval for it. It’s a marvel in engineering and enchanting both. Top of the line, it will let us push the boundaries of understanding when it comes to deep sea gigantism.”
“It needs a name.” Karro cut in. He looked at them all with feverish eyes. “A machine this beautiful needs a name, people. Think!”
“Multitool 5000.” Lapo said immediately, glancing at Otto out of the corner of his eye.
“What?” He asked. The Jarran man deflated.
“Isn’t that how you name things on Earth?” He asked, a bit sheepishly, as if afraid of the answer. “A description of the product followed by a big number?”
Otto shook his head sadly. The man slunk away.
Names were rattled off, and one and all were rejected immediately by either Karro or someone else. It couldn’t be merely good; it needed to be perfect. Otto wasn’t even participating; this was their baby. He wouldn’t try taking naming rights away from them.
Eventually, to the surprise of everyone, Lapo suggested the one that stuck.
“What about Darwin?” he asked, pointedly not looking towards Otto.
Karro opened his mouth to deny it, but paused. “I don’t hate it.” He said. He sounded a little surprised.
Maleera tapped a finger to her chin. “Isn’t it a little silly? It’s not particularly special. It’s just a name.”
Jora gave a thumbs up. “I like it.” She said with a smile. “It evolves to fit our needs. The name fits.”
Braes and Yaris both shrugged. Neither had been very interested in the naming competition; both had made token efforts before zoning out or looking at something on the local Donor.
“That’s it, then.” Karro said. “Darwin.” He looked out at the massive machine attached to the ceiling, suspended over the pool of water the size of a small lake. Otto followed his gaze. He wouldn’t voice it, but privately he thought the name was a little odd. Forced, maybe. It felt self-centered to say, but surely there were names they could have gone with that were evolution related other than the name of the guy from Earth associated with it. It seemed a little pandering, or maybe condescending. “Hey kid, we know you just got torn from your home out of nowhere – don’t worry though, we named a research machine after someone from your home! Don’t you feel comfortable now?”
That, he chastised himself, wasn’t what they meant. He knew that. Even if they were trying to make him more comfortable, that was a nice thing to do. None of the researchers seemed malicious or mean; even Yaris was only grumpy, and he seemed that way towards everyone, not just him. None of them blamed him – unlike Ameris – for delaying their research, they were accepting and glad he was here. Getting upset with them for trying to be nice was, in his opinion, directing his frustration in the wrong direction.
He just wish he knew what the right direction was.
“Okay!” Karro said, clapping his hands together. “That settles that. Otto, welcome aboard. Research begins tomorrow; we’ll collect you from your rooms the first couple of days to get you in the swing of things. For now, it’s getting late. Let’s get something to eat, some rest, and gather in the morning.”
Everyone nodded and started chattering to each other excitedly about the upcoming research. Otto trailed at the back of the group, unable to participate to the discussion. Every once in a while, one of them would glance back at him, and he would give what he hoped was a reassuring smile. It seemed to work, since they turned back around without a word.
His room was just cool enough to be uncomfortable when he walked in, and he crawled into bed without eating dinner. He didn’t have an appetite. His head hit the pillow and he closed his eyes, trying to ignore the feeling in his chest.
Several miles beneath the surface of an alien ocean, in a research base filled with less than a dozen alien scientists, in a cold room, in a bed with too-thin sheets, a sole human tried to sleep.
Otto had never felt more alone.