Streams - Book 1

Chapter 14

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"AAKIL! LILLY!" Jenni cried as she pushed herself up from the craft's glass dome. The inside of the craft was upside down and debris was strewn all over the place. When Jenni looked out the dome, all she could see was water. Carefully, she backed away until she was safely on solid metal again. "Tlaloc, Mia, Ava," she called, "Is everyone okay?"

"I'm here, what happened," Aakil's voice came from the rear of the cockpit, where he had been flung during the crash.

"We crashed at the bottom of the river," Jenni said in a panicked tone. The sound of cracking glass drew her eyes back to the dome where tiny lines were beginning to spiderweb across the right side.

"Then this can't be good," Aakil said, pointing to a spray of water coming up from the floor.

Jenni nodded in agreement as she watched a new leak spring from the wall of the craft. She slapped her hand over the hole, knowing that it wouldn't do much good. They had to get out of here, but how were they going to get to the surface? She was a strong swimmer, but had no idea about the gnomes. She craned her neck around trying to find Tlaloc; he would know if the craft had escape pods or something.

Jenni didn't see him right away, but she did spy Mia who was hanging from the gunner's chair unconscious. "Hey," she said shaking Mia arm, causing her to jerk awake, looking for an enemy to fight.

"It's okay," Jenni soothed, "it's just us."

"My sister, where's my sister?" Mia asked as she pushed the release mechanism on her chair.

Jenni pointed over to the other side of the craft, "I think the other gunner station is over there. I'm sure she's still there." As Mia rushed over to help out her sister, Jenni saw Tlaloc crawling out from under an overturned chair.

"Everyone okay?" he asked as he took in the situation. "Is that the riverbed?" He added, looking out the window at the thick black mud and fast flowing brown water.

"Define ok, and while you're at it let me know what exactly your plan was," Lilly called from behind a seat where she and Aakil had become tangled up in a nest of cables during the crash.

"Someone help us down please," Aakil said. Jenni moved over to untangle the two gnomes, stepping carefully around Tlaloc.

"How do I get to my sister?" Mia called as she began pounding on what was now the ceiling, calling her sisters name.

"Last section," Tlaloc said, pointing to a silver ring that lay inside a floor panel. Pulling the ring out of its hiding place, Mia yanked hard releasing the panel and sending a wall of water pouring into the cabin.

"Ava!" Mia yelled as her sister's body slid out onto the floor. "You're alive," she hugged her half drowned sister.

"We can now add Reticulan craft crash, to the list of things we have survived," Ava said once she caught her breath.

"You may want to hold off on your survival celebrations for a bit longer." Tlaloc said, as he flipped open a storage compartment on the side of his chair, and pulled out a hand full of oblong devices.

"One of my father's early inventions." He held up the metal device for everyone to see. "It takes a variety of different elements and separates out the oxygen, so we can use them to breathe." He handed one to each of them. Jenni had just untangled the last of the wires from Aakil and Lilly, when Tlaloc handed her the breathing device.

"You don't think the dragons will be waiting for us on the surface?" Aakil asked sarcastically.

"I'm sure they will be." Tlaloc said as he crossed over to one of the control panels that was still standing. "But we're not going up." He flipped one of the many switches on the dash, causing a bright beam of light to illuminate the side of the river directly in front of them.

"What's that?" Jenni asked, pointing to some strange writing encircling a hole cut into the river side.

"It's a doorway for Lorelei," Tlaloc replied, "She's a mermaid. This is the door she would use to get to the underground council chamber; if the location you told me was accurate." He gave the twins a pointed look and they both nodded.

"Well, whatever you've got planned, you'd better do it fast," Ava gestured toward the water rapidly filling up the craft.

Tlaloc nodded. "The power is only going to last a few minutes, so gather anything you need and think you can swim with. We need to get to that door, without being pulled downstream. We don't want to go over the falls." He took some rope from the supply box and tossed it over to Lilly and Aakil. "I know you both are not great swimmers, so tie the rope around yourselves and I'll make sure you get safely to the door." He looked over at the twins, who were both securing their weapons to their armor so they didn't have to worry about them getting loose in the water.

Jenni assumed the twins must be good swimmers if they were planning to keep their armor on. She knew it had to be pretty heavy. She eyed the distance to the door; it looked to be less than the length of the Olympic sized pool at her last school. So the distance shouldn't be a problem, but she was worried about the current.

"How well can you swim?" Tlaloc asked, as he finished tying the rope around his waist. He turned to Jenni, obviously waiting for her answer.

"I was on my school's swim team, but we only swim in still water," she worried, "I've never had to swim against a current before."

"Well just stay close," he commented, "I'll try to keep an eye on you in case you get in trouble." He reached around to his other side and pulled out a small metal box with two rods protruding from one end. He walked the couple of steps to Ava and handed her the strange looking device. "This should override the security panel to the left of the door. Touch the two rods to the plate and then squeeze the handle." Ava gave him a thumb's up as she tucked it under her arm and put her breathing device in her mouth.

Jenni quickly followed suit as Tlaloc and the others also secured their breathing devices. "Everyone hold onto something when I open the door," Tlaloc called as he reached up and pulled two handles toward him. The entryway door opened and water poured in, nearly taking Jenni off her feet. She clung to one of the chairs as more water flooded inside the craft.

"Let the cabin fill up before you try and swim out," Mia yelled over the roar of the water.

Jenni tried to breathe normally as the water rose above her waist, then to her chest, and finally over her head. Once the water filled every inch inside the craft, Tlaloc lead them out into the river.

He pushed the twins ahead to the security panel and then shoved Jenni toward the underwater door. She used his propulsion to help fight through the current. Thankfully, it was not as strong as she feared and she reached the door with little difficulty. She looped her hands through some thick roots to the right of the door and watched the twins manipulate the security panel. They placed Tlaloc's device on the panel, sparking bright green light that danced across the area where a mere-person would normally place its hand.

The steel door protecting the tunnel slowly opened and Tlaloc waved the twins and Jenni into the opening. Taking one last look at his father's craft, Tlaloc pulled himself into the tunnel, his two helpless passengers floating along behind him, twirling in the current.