It's not so much that I can feel the cold...It's more like, I know it's there.
Thanks to Major Chang, I'm resistant to both the water and its extreme temperature, even when completely immersed like this.
I can see everything under the water—there's life here. Not carbon-based like on Earth, but...methane-based? At least, that's what my environmental readers are detecting. Still, there's nothing to compare anything to in my internal database. I almost forget the potential danger I could be in, and just observe.
A flurry of tiny organisms I can't identify surrounds me. There are so many of them, and yet they swim together in perfect formation, like an intricate pattern gliding through the water.
So beautiful...
My moment of peace doesn't last. Something slimy, yet solid, creeps up my leg and pulls me down deeper into the void. I immediately struggle to break free of its grasp, unsure of what else to do. I have to find a way to fight back!
Come on, default settings...there has to be something in here for self-defense...
My hand begins to heat up and rapidly flashes a red light on my palm before firing a laser at the hostile creature's tentacled arm. I can't make out the rest of its body, but it retreats when the laser severs its arm off. The disembodied arm goes limp and slides off of my leg, sinking into the deep.
Well, THAT'S new...What other functionalities are hiding in my system?
As if in response, a flaming missile appears out of nowhere and zips past me. I duck and look in the direction it went, but it's already gone, as if it was never there.
"ATTACK! MAYDAY! I'M UNDER ATTACK!!" The voice from before echoes into my ears. This time I can't help but notice two things: (1) The voice isn't muffled by the water. It sounds clear as a bell. (2) The voice sounds exactly like...mine?
Something's not right. Missiles don't leave trails of fire under water. And if that voice was really mine, then all of what just happened...
Maybe it was all an illusion. No...
A memory.
I have to get back to the surface and back to Major Chang!
[[TO BE CONTINUED]]
YOU ARE READING
I Am XIAO: An Inktober Story
Bilim KurguFirst published on Instagram under the username @leilacreatesthings as a response to Jake Parker's "Inktober" art challenge during October 2019-January 2020. PREMISE: In the year 2520, on the space capsule "Blue Dragon", the sole passenger, a NASA...
