White Space

26

 In a few seconds, the digital shimmering on the canopy started morphing in front of Yemon's eyes. The green hue faded, the pixels composing the image gave way to a strange white fuzz. At first, he had no idea what it was or why it was changing. And then he realized. Whatever the things were, they'd just moved into the actual light. And they were closing in fast. Soon, the movement was close enough to the ship that Yemon's mind could finally start making sense of it.

The strange collection of creatures swam right at the ship head-on. Yemon instinctively grabbed a handhold to brace for impact and clenched his teeth. He had no idea how the sub would react to a flock of living beings smashing into it. His flight experience told him that no matter how well built a vehicle was, things colliding with it meant no good. He couldn't imagine a submarine would be anything different. He held his breath as the animals gained definition in the canopy. As they got closer, the image also revealed some peculiarities that Yemon wasn't expecting. Some looked like tiny octopi with fish heads, some crabs with long tails, and some of them were just blobs of tentacles moving in a way that was completely unfathomable. And then they stopped.

"What the..."

"Can they even do that?" Yemon looked at Jaleel.

"I've never seen it happen, but I'm no expert, ok?"

The animals were keeping a constant distance from the ship. And since the vehicle was moving forward at a relatively fast pace, Yemon realized the fish weren't stationary as much as swimming backwards.

"That can't be right." He blinked in disbelief. Just when they thought they were through the hellscape of fish, the wave of creatures parted and swam around them, converging at the back of the submarine. "They're toying with us."

 "I don't like it." Jaleel shook his head. "I don't like this one bit. Let's bounce!" He grabbed the dashboard in front of him so hard that the plastic started creaking as Yemon increased the throttle.

"Call the station." Yemon said. "Now."

"This is Megalodon calling Enki station. Enki station, do you read?" Jaleel said as soon as the connection was established through the console between them.

"This is Enki station. What's the situation, gentlemen?" Came the answer from the comms device in the dashboard, pulling Yemon out from the mesmerizing sight of the parting and converging school of bizarre aquatic critters.

"We have here what appears to be—" Jaleel said, but suddenly swallowed his words when Yemon adjusted their course in a desperate attempt to get rid of the things. He couldn't decide whether they were being aggressive or if they were just acting in a neutral fashion, as he had no idea what they were in the first place. He wasn't risking it though, as they seemed to be dangerous enough.

"Hello? What do you see?" He could finally make out Accacia's voice through the fog of concentration.

"Well, I mean—" Jaleel was visibly at a loss. He turned to Yemon. "I don't know. It looks like a freaking school of fish, but that can't be right."

 "Tell them that."

They were coming up on the mountain. It was not just looming on the horizon anymore, but filled the whole canopy in front of them. Yemon had a hard time gauging the distance, but he wasn't ready to just ease up on the throttle yet. Not until he saw a way through the cloud of frenzied creatures, anyway.

"So it's fish. And they can swim backwards." Jaleel said.

"Are you high?" the voice on the other end asked, not even trying to mask their annoyance. Jaleel simply wasn't in the situation to deal with moody scientists right now. "There's nothing on Eu—" Accacia started explaining the known fact again, like speaking to an idiot.

"Listen, ma'am, there are all kinds of weird things around here. There's literally life everywhere. Whatever the fu—"

"Listen," Yemon cut in while the fish came into view before them once again, still swimming backwards. It was a baffling sight. "This is some weird fucking shit out here, and none of this is normal. If Yin was here, she might have something to do with it. Check on her. We're about to—Woah, holy fuck!" He shouted as the school of fish made a direct attempt on the submarine from both sides. They ended up swimming over and around them, the two smaller schools switching places and then disappearing behind them. Yemon glanced down on the tracking data in green, overlaid on all the rest of the info on the map.

"What the hell is that?"

"What?" Jaleel said, tearing his glance away from the canopy.

There was a huge signature on the screen, right on top of the submarine.

"It's..." Jaleel looked up, searching for the green representation of the signal above their head. "... below us."

"And it's matching our speed." Yemon said and then looked ahead.

"Ma'am, we're having some trouble we'll try to—" Jaleel said, holding onto the dashboard.

"There's an opening there. We'll call you back as soon as we have something!" Yemon said through clenched his teeth.

The dark hole in front of them was not big. In fact, and Yemon was not going to say anything, it seemed just a little too tight. But they had no choice now. The assault of the school of fish had become unbearable. The creatures were making passes at the canopy now, bumping into it and rolling out of sight as he was struggling to navigate the strange white cloud of meat and tentacles and, judging by the unnerving high-pitched sounds, possibly teeth.

Yemon took a deep, controlled breath. He knew he could do this. He just had to concentrate. It was just a matter of feeling the submarine just like he was flying a ship. He could thread this needle through a hole no bigger than the ship itself. If it had been in the air. But water wasn't all that different. He knew the basics. It was just a bit more sluggish. He had to allow for the weight of the water. He had to visualize it flowing around the ship, through the propulsion system and out the back. He just had to let his hands drive the thing instead of his brain. It was the same. It was going to be alright.

"Slow down, man!" he heard Jaleel's voice next to him. It was loud, but muffled at the same time. He blinked. Only once, but it was enough for his hand to twitch just a hair. But he felt it. He could feel the ship move. Oh God, what had he done?

"We're inside!" Jaleel shouted, much more clearly now. He blinked again and eased up on the throttle. After another blink, he realized that they'd only gone two or three seconds after passing through the hole, but they were, in fact, inside.

"Accacia, talk to Yin as soon as she can talk. Whatever she was doing here, she must have seen this. She has to know something." He said as he slowed the ship further down.

"We've lost them."

"When? Yemon looked at the console.

"I have no idea."