There was a moment of terror followed by complete calm as Odessa went flying past the panic zone. For a brief second she accepted the fact that she was a dead person and she became relaxed. That was when the rather dominating, stubborn part of her mind went, ‘fuck that,’ and her logical brain started racking for options.
She reached for her weight belt, ready to drop it. At the same time she looked down to see where she was headed. It was a good thing she did because the first thing she saw was Triss below her with her hand outstretched toward Odessa, the way some witches looked when they were using their powers.
‘Oh.’ Something in Odessa’s mind clicked.
Triss was telekinetic.
At the same time Triss thought to her, ‘Sorry, but you were ascending too fast. I had to pull you down.’
‘It’s alright.’ Odessa found she was calm now, and her vision was clearer. They were at a safe depth and there was sunlight up above her. ‘I was just...’
‘Panicking?’ offered Rhys as he pulled himself free from the tunnel that Odessa and Triss had just squeezed through. ‘Gods that’s tight.’
‘No. I was... just...’ She floundered for the word. ‘Fine, I was panicking,’ she agreed. ‘But I’m good now. We can go back in.’
‘I think we should go back up,’ Triss replied.
‘No way,’ Odessa thought at her. ‘We have to find Chaser.’
‘His dive line is cut. We don’t know where he is.’
‘Then we check the tunnel Hoots said he went into. That was different to where his dive line went. We didn’t even get through to the cathedral part.’
‘Why would he abandon his dive line?’ Triss asked.
‘Because it’s totally Chaser,’ Rhys thought. ‘I agree with Dess. We go up now and we waste time and air that he might not have. And while he’s probably fine, I’d rather not risk it. He also might have cut the dive line on something else and thinks it’s still attached.’
‘Hey, guys.’ Nico interrupted their thoughts. ‘I think I’m stuck.’
‘What?’ Now it was Triss’s turn to sound panicked. ‘Can you move backwards?’
‘Tried that. Something feels caught but I can’t see what. I don’t want to pull out a regulator hose.’
‘Okay, I’m gonna come around behind you. The rest of you wait here.’
Odessa watched at Triss swam up to the tunnel they’d first gone through and disappeared through it. She glanced at Rhys. He was checking his dive watch, probably recalculating decompression times and air supply, working out how much time they had.
Odessa dropped down to the tunnel Nico was in and shone her torch into it. She could see Nico’s main air tanks. They were removed from his back and he’d been pushing them through in front of him. Now they hid him mostly from her view and blocked any access to him from this side.
She pulled her way into the tunnel to try and get a better view of how he was stuck.
‘Hang on,’ Rhys grabbed her foot. ‘Don’t you get stuck. It’ll be hard to move backward if you go in like that and you’re not going to be able to reach him with the air tanks in the way anyway.’ His voice sounded distant. Probably because Triss was a little further away at the moment and there was some lost efficiency in relaying the thoughts. That and she was probably focused on Nico’s current predicament.
‘But I might be able to give Triss a view from a different angle,’ Odessa thought to them.
‘Hold on,’ Triss replied. ‘Let me get a look from this side. I’ve just reached the opening.’
‘Careful,’ Rhys thought.
There was silence for awhile.
Odessa glanced up toward the surface. Sunlight caused it to sparkle slightly. It looked warm but it felt cold, especially now they were still. She tried not to think of where Chaser was and the ticking clock. He was probably in a cave somewhere. Nico was stuck and that wasn’t good but they’d get him out then they’d look for Chaser again.
Odessa shivered.
‘Cold?’ Rhys asked.
‘No,’ Odessa thought at them, fully aware that they probably knew she was lying from the rest of her thoughts. She was fine though. Just slightly uncomfortable cold, not dangerous cold.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
‘This is weird,’ Triss thought at them.
‘What?’ Odessa thought back.
‘The dive lines got tangled, ours and Chaser’s, but I’m not sure how. It’s almost like someone tied them on purpose.’
‘Current?’ Odessa asked. ‘I felt a little one before I think.
‘No. This is like proper knotted. I’m going to cut it.’
A second of silence.
Rhys checking his watch again.
‘Done,’ Triss thought. ‘Try moving again.’
Odessa shone her light down the tunnel. She could see Nico’s dark shape pushing his tanks forward. The next section looked tighter than where he currently was though.
‘Uh, Nico, I think you should try go back. I’m not sure you’ll get through the rest of this.’
‘Nah, nah, I just gotta get past this bit. Couldn’t get back. Aw crap!’
‘What?’ Triss thought.
Odessa could see air bubbles forming in the tunnel around Nico, lots more than there should be.
‘I’ve got a leak.’
‘From the main tanks?’ Rhys asked.
‘No, the octo I think.’ His thoughts came fast like he was starting to panic.
‘Nico, relax,’ Triss thought at him.
‘Hang on, I’m going to try backwards again.’
Odessa watched through the tunnel as Nico reached for the manifold that connected his twinset tanks.
‘No, don’t pull on the manifold,’ she thought desperately at him.
But it was too late. More bubbles erupted around Nico.
‘Argh! Fuck! FUCK! FUCK!’
‘Relax! Relax!’ Triss thought, but she didn’t sound very relaxed herself.
Odessa pulled herself into the tunnel as fast as she could. She reached Nico in seconds. Or at least she reached his tanks. He was strangely still now, not moving at all or reaching to do anything, but she could see where the air was coming from. The left side of the manifold had cracked near the o-ring. She stretched one hand forward as far as she could, just past the top of the tanks and closed the isolator. That should save the right side at least but Nico would be more than half his air down by now, and no pony bottle anymore, assuming they were right about the other leak. They needed to get him out. There was no way they were continuing after Chaser like this now.
‘Nico?’ she thought hesitantly at him. She could see his eyes, bulging wide with fear. From up this close she could also see more of what the problem was. Somehow his BCD was fully inflated.
‘Nico!’ Triss thought. ‘Focus. You’re fine. You’ve still got a tank.’
‘Less than a tank and I can’t move,’ he finally thought back in a tone Odessa hadn’t heard from him before. He sounded defeated.
‘What happened to your BCD?’ Odessa asked. ‘Why’s it fully inflated?’
‘I don’t know. Fuck. I don’t know.’
‘You need you need to dump the gas in it.’ Triss told him. ‘I can maybe reach the rear dump cord if you can’t reach the shoulder one? You’ll need to shift your legs slightly though.’
‘Wait,’ Odessa thought at her, ‘Check the inflator button’s not jammed. Maybe it’s not the pony bottle that’s leaking. That might be the overpressure valve on BCD in which case you risk dumping all his air if you pull the dump cord.’
‘Well, I can’t see the inflator valve from here. It’s on the side,’ Triss shot back. ‘Fuck, I can’t pull him, I don’t want to knock anything else loose or risk popping the BCD.’
Odessa racked her brain. She couldn’t do much from this side either. She’d barely managed to reach the isolator on the twinset manifold.
It was Rhys who came back with a solution. Obviously he’d been keeping an eye on the time. ‘Dess, leave him your octo or tanks and then we’ll head up, get some more air, and come back down with some dish soap.’
‘Okay, but I’m going to have to back out first. I can’t get them off in here. Back in a sec,’ she thought to Nico.
‘I’m coming back around that side,’ Triss told them.
Once out of the tunnel Odessa checked her own decompression calculations and realised there was a slight problem. ‘There’s only about 11 minutes of air in the pony bottle and it’s going to take about 17 minutes to decompress. Then we have to get shit together and come back down.’
‘Okay, so leave him my main tanks. They’re probably the most full and we’ve got three octo’s between us so it’s not a problem. Plus, Triss has a spare tank.’
‘And my main tanks are probably the most full,’ Triss thought to him as she popped out of the other tunnel and dropped down toward them. ‘But let’s not argue, what’s your gauge say? Either way, Odessa is the one who should probably take them into him since she’s the smallest.’
Rhys and Triss compared gauges.
Then they helped Triss remove her twinset.
Once she switched to her spare tank, Rhys indicated at her to go up but she shook her head.
‘We’ve got time and it’s better we ascend together.’
As Odessa took the twinset to Nico, she listened as Triss made a plan for what would happen once they reached the surface.
‘We just need to get in contact with Kevin. He said he’s done some dives before so if he can get down here and then into that tunnel he can teleport Nico into the main one and they can decompress from there.’
‘He’d need to get into the tunnel though. That’s a big ask for someone who’s only done open water diving before,’ Rys told her. ‘And teleportation in tight spaces is risky enough when there’s no water and dive gear.’
‘Nico, can you reach this,’ Odessa thought to Nico.
He gave her the ok signal and then grabbed the end of the regulator which she’d had to basically throw through the water towards him. She placed the tanks in a position where he could reach the knobs and made sure they were sturdy enough. Then she backed out of the tunnel.
‘All good?’ Triss asked as she emerged.
Odessa gave the ok sign.
‘Cool, let’s head up,’ Rhys thought to them as he swam a little away from them and out toward the middle of the hole. He waited for them there.
‘We’ll be back,’ Triss thought to Nico.
With one last glance at the tunnel, Triss and Odessa swam out and upward.
Rhys followed, a little below them. Odessa paused to look back down and check Rhys was still there. Triss noticed her stop and did the same.
‘I’m goo-’ Rhys’s voice could be heard in their heads briefly and then it suddenly cut off.
A pale green flash dashed down past them at such high speed it was just a blur. It covered the space between them and Rhys and then disappeared down into the depths of the tunnel.
For a moment, Odessa was confused. Had she imagined that? Rhys was still there in the water below her but he looked a little shorter that usual.
As she watched, the water changed colour beneath them, bleeding out like a photo being filled in under the red glow of a darkroom lamp. The source of the colour was Rhys’s neck. A neck that no longer held a head.