The waters of the moon pool were far colder this time on Carissa's skin. The t-shirt, completely soaked through exerted a light weight on her body as she traded water.
Her immediate view above her was obscured by the diving bell but as she considered swimming over to the ladder to hold onto and conserve her active energy levels, she heard shouting from above.
The voices were muffled enough for her to hear but there was shouting. Relaxing she let herself float on her back, eyes on the diving bell as she let herself sink backwards and the water flow over her face and mouth. The backpack neither restricting or adding additional, her legs and arms remained exposed with her swimming costume.
Holding her breath wasn’t a chore for her, and she had desperately wanted some space to herself. A place where she didn’t have to keep trying to learn, to adapt to the rules of others. To take a little time and finally relax. Her long hair streamed behind her.
As her face submerged beneath the deep water of the moon pool, the muffled shouts up above were entirely blocked out. The air inside her lungs enough for her to settle for a little.
Closing her eyes, the water played over the surface of her body, she lightly kicker her legs and pushed her arms, just enough for her to stay buoyant and below the surface but not so that she would sink deeper.
A movement in the water, an object hitting it, caused vibrations that rocked the water around her before it rapidly settled. Then several more, not large enough shift her but to create an impact on the water surface.
A message came into her mind’s eye, further disturbing her. Peace, it seemed was going to be a distant memory unless she was able either follow through or become strong enough to no longer have to care about the tasks of others.
[Player-Candidate Number 5428119402.
-An unknown Ocean God sends the following message.
Refuse. Gods. No. Suit. Wear.]
Another order. Another task.
Mentally sighing she opened her eyes under the water, not entirely uncomfortable but marginally blurred. An ocean god had taken an interest in her, but didn’t offer anything besides orders and vague messages.
Above the surface of the waters, a large shape was descending downwards towards her direction. The construct made by Sherry at the top was being lowered regardless, slowly, likely on the tethers which had attached it further up.
Carissa assumed that her actions had forced the hands of the three players. Raising herself into a treading water position she avoided the temptation to wipe the water from her eyes and took a breath of fresh air in her lungs before swimming over to the ladder and taking hold of the rungs.
She wasn’t planning on climbing back up but she would try and maintain a margin of safety.
The food and drink.
As the construct lowered, a figure leaned over the side but moved back fast enough for her to avoid verifying their identity.
Given her circumstances, Carissa, wanted to react. When she had identities the diving bell, Mike had applauded her efforts. Her initiative. On Terrus, she had played the role of high society victim and simply tried to avoid blame and conflict hoisted upon her. In this place she needed to take charge.
The food and drink.
Drugged.
Holding onto the ladder rung by hooking her foot through she was able to balance herself in the water. She needed two hands free for this little trick, if it worked then she’d have another option available.
One hand released the strap of her backpack while the other grabbed hold of her soaking wet-shirt and held it tight. Even balancing it’d be difficult for her to strip it off and she wanted to keep it. She quite liked the pink mermaid design.
Opening the top of the bag she focused on the t-shirt and willed it inside the bag. The Ocean Gateway system had plenty of loop-holes or rules which she hadn’t been introduced to. If Sherry could make items appear then the reverse would be true as well unless it required a special ability.
Ideally, the bag would filter out unnecessary items such as large amount of water, but she imagined that it had been constructed with such concepts in mind. Otherwise, the stacks of magazines held within would have been completely ruined. She’d keep those for the promise of later trading for useful equipment which Sherry had promised.
After holding her position and a sensation of mild cramp from her foot Carissa looked up and saw the diving platform still descending at a slow pace, she still had a little bit of time left then.
‘Get into the bag. Bag, accept item.’ muttered Carissa as some of the water from the moon pool splashed from her movements onto her face.
Holding the bag, she concentrated as the description appeared in her mind.
[Player-Candidate Designate: Carissa.
Tool Received from Ocean Gateway System
-Dry Bag/Spatial Storage Container
-Item cannot be transferred or sold to other players.
Can only be opened by Owner.]
Nothing for her to further identity or alter. She furrowed her brow, her stuck foot beginning to ache in the rung. She’d force it.
Blood began to run from her nose as a headache came began behind her eyes.
‘Get in the bag. Take the t-shirt.’ Carissa said.
With no response Carissa, she slipped her backpack around her neck and pulled at the t-shirt. The soaked through material proved resistant until she pulled a portion of it up to her teeth and bit hard into it, causing a rip to appear.
With her hands she tore further and the t-shirt ripped into two pieces, grabbing hold of them before they could sink into the depths of the moon pool, she stuck them inside her bag and felt around for the skin suit inside.
‘Skin suit. I need the skin suit.’ said Carissa.
The bag responded to her commands this time and her outstretched hand inside it connected to the neatly folder suit inside, as it transferred itself to her hand and then along her arm the coldness of the water began to recede and it flowed over her entire body covering the blue swimsuit.
A small amount of warmth came from the suit and Carissa willed it over her head, nose and mouth.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Once her eyes were fully protected once more, she closed off the bag and slung it over her back, connecting the straps to keep it fixed in place.
Her body now fully protected against the chilly waters of the moon pool, Carissa looked above her head and observed that the descending diving bell was only two or so metres from her position.
The longer she waited, the less opportunity she would have to explore.
Carissa unhooked her foot and massaged it before she held onto the bottom rung of the ladder which lay beneath the surface of the water and kicked off, propelling her body down deeper into the depths of the moon pool.
The first time that she had been dropped inside here, she had explored a little, but then given the wooden boards, even with her bare hands and nails she had only been able to scratch a little.
As she kicked deeper, she grabbed her backpack, reaching over with one arm and opening it, straining her arm to reach inside and procure the one item that she could actually use.
Above her the construction of the diving platform impacted with the water causing a splash, but she was deep enough and focused on pushing her way deeper with one arm while the other strained even harder to reach inside the contents of her bag.
All she needed was one item in particular, the suit would regulate her air intake, uncomfortable though it was.
Her movements were limited but as Carissa continued kicking, she succeeded in reaching the base of the moon pool. As before it was covered entirely in wooden planks, the same as the surface, the rooms and all of the floor on this makeshift boat.
But if the controller and owner of the material was occupied, she would have sufficient time to make a gap of her own. Enough for her to slip through and find her own way.
First though, she had to cause enough damage. Her hand closed on occupied, the item she needed and she saw the description in her mind as she brought it swinging through the water at a slow pace towards the wood.
[Player-Candidate Designate: Carissa.
Weapon received from Ocean Gateway System
-Bone Toothed Blade/Club
-Inflicts physical damage.
-Item cannot be transferred or sold to other players.
A simple weapon grown from a piece of unknown sea predator bone, teeth and sheath included.]
As a club it had little use fighting underwater unless the rules changes and she gained the ability to fight without the usual limitations of fighting in a pure liquid environment. But it was the particular aspect that interested her more, which would surely be able to cause damage to wood. The bone teeth of the weapon could be used as a saw. Still a limited use but Carissa wanted to take initiative.
The message in the Ocean Gateway System from an apparent unknown god which either refused to disclose its identity or was restricted from doing so was still clear in her mind. She wouldn’t have been surprised if it had provided her with this weapon for this exact purpose.
Allies would be few and the ocean gods were meant to be powerful beings. She could refrain herself from considering killing at least one higher being. Eventually. For now, though, she would act within the power that she had.
As the bone teeth bit into the wood, they wedged a little, and Carissa was thankful for the visibility that the moon pool gave when she was wearing the suit. Her own genetic implants were still entirely deactivated and barely worth considering in this place.
She raised one hand to her stomach and willed the suit to retract around her upper abdomen, the chill water touching her skin even through her swimming suit as she touched the slightly raised edges of the scars that had accompanied her self-surgery.
Not even tested in real conditions.
Carissa didn’t pause to watch the shadows above her, nor the two bodies that landed into the pool, several metres above her head despite diving deep beneath the surface of the moon pool.
She grabbed the bone toothed weapon with both hands and tried to force it deeper into the wood as it bit in. Her movements remained restricted but she had a strict limit.
They would know that she had gone underwater and likely Mike would detect her attack on the wooden underside of the boat, unless his powers of awareness were restricted underwater.
The wooden surface began to splinter under her efforts and she saw a small gap between two planks, holding tightly onto her bone weapon with one hand she wedged her fingers and slid her hand into the wood and tried to rip it open.
It refused to move easily but she managed to get a larger hold as she wedged in the bone tooth weapon in an attempt to create a large enough hole for her to escape but a motion in the water alerted Carissa to a larger object descending above her as the diving bell came down above her head.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist as another hand took the weapon from her hand and grabbed the arm holding it before she was pulled roughly away from the wooden surface. As she was taken away Carissa was certain that she had seen a glint or a glow under the boards in the gap she had made.
She tried to move her free arm to grab back her weapon, to make sure if she didn’t use it then at least have ownership back over it. This was hers. What belonged to her couldn’t be taken away by anyone else unless she gave them her permission.
With her legs free Carissa twisted and tried to turn but the hands gripping her waist had pinned one of her arms to her side, the grip wasn’t painful enough to alarm, only strong enough that she was unable to move.
Her suit gave her a degree of protection from the power of the two hands gripping her but she could feel a rising pressure from below her.
The temperature of the water below her feet, near where the crack in the wood was beginning to rise and the small glow which she had noticed earlier increased in intensity. Heat. There was heat below the wood. Enough to begin to warm the water surrounding her, not enough to be a threat but she remembered that sensation.
When her main implant was active during a trial she had tried it once inside her bath, the water had begun to evaporate after several hours. The effort had drained her badly enough and the burns on her body and internal damage had made her remove and redesign, adding more months of both recovery and testing.
She recognised that sensation. The heat. The water. But it wasn’t her power, close, very close to her own but different in a way. As though someone had taken control from outside of her body and activated it without full awareness of the effects.
The arms and hands that gripped her and lifted her upwards in the water were all but forgotten under Carissa experiencing what she had once lost, what had been taken from her, through the wooden floor she had control.
Then her body shook, involuntary as her eyes rolled back and her arms and legs became slack. Fighting against the state of forced unconsciousness, Carissa retained enough awareness to keep her breathing regular as the outside water was filled through the mask.
Her body suffered a near imediate lack of control which she recognised as having come from the Ocean Gateway System but Carissa was certain that she hadn’t triggered it.
[Player-Candidate Number 5428119402.
-An unknown Ocean God sends the following message.
Cheat! You dare to cheat in my domain! YOU DARE TO CHEAT! YOU BRING TECHNOLOGY TO MY GAME! YOU DARE!]
A new type of message. Which accused her.
No, she had seen this message before or one similar to it.
So what? Break your rules then so-called ocean god.
One of your own told me to dry you all out.
[Player-Candidate Number 5428119402.
-An unknown Ocean God sends the following me-
Sender Restricted. Message Removed. Er-Error. Wait. Safe. Wait.]
All living creatures have enemies.
Even the gods themselves.
Energy left her body, her physical attributes weakened enough from the attempt to shock her again, this time she wouldn’t fight back. All weaker prey knew when it was time to play dead and when to fight back. She let her arms and legs hang loose and dropped her head.
Despite being pulled upwards by either one or two people she allowed her body to become dead weight and conserve what she had left.
It was unlikely that any of the three players would hurt her but if one of them received a message from an ocean god they might take matters into their own hands.
Carissa closed her eyes and shut out the pain.