A frisson of pain convulsed her when she splashed into the sea. The familiar blue and the buoyant waters offered only fleeting relief.

Her ogi blinked, warning her of an impending shutdown. However, it showed her that she was close to Seren City—an hour's swim from the cove where the Little Angler waited for her.

It was just as well. Dea knew she wouldn't make it if it was farther than that. She started porpoising.

Her leaden limbs needed frequent breaks, and the abyss of emptiness that yawned within threatened to pull her under—at least, it dulled the physical strain. As Dea sliced in and out of the waves, she suddenly sensed company. She turned her head sideways.

Flying fish raced her, their gossamer fins unfurled as they glided in the wind. Silvery scales shimmered against the blue of the ocean and sky.

This unexpected sight of joy and freedom sent her mind careening into chaos. Warring emotions pushed against the fog that obscured her thinking faculties.

It ignited yet another spark—to fight for her people and these wonderful creatures she had only just begun to know about. Her thoughts strayed to the secret facility that Dilip tried to cart her off to. Sifting through fragments of memory, Dea made a mental note to jot down all that she remembered.

She gritted her teeth and powered on.

It took longer than an hour to reach the cove.

The calm waters sparkled turquoise against the sand, rock and mangroves—as if to convince her that what happened was nothing but a freakish dream. As Dea forced her body to move, the sun blazed down and slowly dispelled the mist in her mind. She wished it didn't.

Her heart quivered when it occurred to her that she was scarily close to the human-made hellscape. Memories gyred with pain and anger in a viscous whirlpool and threatened to overwhelm her. The torment compounded her headache, which pummeled her mercilessly behind the eyes. She suppressed a sob and paused to survey the Little Angler.

It peeked above the water, gentle waves lapping against its glass dome.

Dea rubbed her eyelids and floundered the rest of the way. When she reached the craft, she climbed up and touched her fingers to the panel to open the top hatch.

After getting in, the first thing she did was plug the dead ogi into a port beneath the interface. Next, she switched on the DSV, but the system update had frozen at ninety-nine percent. The power had also plummeted to near depletion.

Dea buried her face in her hands and sat unmoving for a long minute. Massaging her eyes again, she forced a reboot and started the charging mechanism.

"Solar panels deployed," the AI announced.

"Okay, bot," she murmured, appreciating the familiar sounds of Mermish.

She clambered back out of the hatch to watch robotic arms extending out. A tessellation of solar panels unfolded like gleaming origami.

There was nothing left to do but wait. Dea wished for a distraction—a challenging video game that would stop her from spiraling into the scary pit of her own head. Unable to sit still, she slid into the cove's placid water and drifted towards the shallows near the shore. She stopped next to shafts of mangrove roots, shaded by the foliage above.

As time dragged on, physical exertion took its toll on her. Her muscles ached while pain prickled from the drill wound on her skull to the cut on her peduncle. On the verge of collapse again, Dea's peripheral vision detected a small, brown creature climbing laboriously up a mangrove root.

It was a fish.

Short fins grasped the grey shaft and pushed its body up. When the strange fish was well above the water and level with her head, it stopped to scrutinize her.

"I'm like you," Dea whispered. "It's like I don't belong on land or sea..."

The mudskipper continued its crawl while more of its kin walked on the wet ground further inland.

Afraid to doze off so close to the shore, she meandered back to the Angler and scrambled down to the seat. Then she hugged her travel pillow and curled into a ball.

Tears flowed freely and nightmares swam rampant. She awoke to the AI's voice.

"Power—ninety percent," the AI announced. "Would you like to re-install the system update?"

"No, bot," she mumbled. "I have to go home. I have to go now."

Dea chanted the words under her breath as she picked a route back to Calliathron. The vehicle whirred as the panels folded.

Suddenly, the noise faded, and an alert winked on the screen.

"Error 109," the AI informed her. "Gathering data."

No, no, not again. She unleashed a flurry of taps to bring up the diagnostics. Her flukes twitched while the scan commenced. Dea wondered if the collision with the squid did have an effect or if this was due to the failed system update.

"Manual withdrawal advised," the AI intoned. "Error report compiled."

She slumped back in the seat, puffy eyes boring into the interface.

As if to mock her, sunny blue waters jostled against the half-submerged bowl of a viewport and cast dappling patterns on the interior. She could see the robotic arms locked in place like stipes of black kelp.

Dea's limbs trembled as she climbed back up.

"We're going home," she murmured again and again as she entered the water and got to work.

Clouds collected in the far horizon, growing large and menacing. Daylight gradually dimmed. It soon came to her notice that manual withdrawal didn't involve brute force.

Dea stared at the joints and screws. The upsurge of desperation made her knead her temples. She struggled to fold a joint, which refused to move. The task became even harder as she rode the swell of a wave, and her sluggish senses barely noticed the extra turbulence behind her.

A caramel brown hand materialized and gripped the robotic arm.

She gasped and drew back—only to bump into a hard chest. She knew who it was even before a lean arm wrapped around her waist and stabilized her. Dea's heart stirred.

Her eyes fluttered sideways, over her shoulder, and met a stubbled jaw in extreme close-up.

"Anuk!" She pushed away from him, though part of her craved comfort.

He regarded her, a frown clouding his face, while his legs tread water. "Are you okay?"

His subdued voice was almost inaudible amidst the swishing and burbling of the ocean. She rubbed her eyes again and put more distance between them.

"Dea—"

"Stay away from me," she said, her voice quavering. "I can't trust you humans. I just can't wrap my head around—"

She faltered and stifled a sob.

After watching her for a moment, Anuk went about folding the metallic rods, pressing tiny buttons she hadn't even noticed. He had shed his shirt—leaving only the thick, black article of clothing that encased his legs from the waist down. In other circumstances, she would have been both embarrassed and fascinated, but now, she just wiped her stinging eyes, which brimmed with tears.

"I'm sorry," he said, tucking the last of it into place somewhere at the back of the Angler.

Dea fought down another sob. "W-what?"

"I thought you were at Dilip's. I rushed there to get you, and I spoke to Nadie and the Endera crew about the situation. But I couldn't find you..." He paused, the frown deepening. "Then Endera told me in the morning that they found you on a trawler they rammed. Dea, I can't imagine what—how did you end up there?"

"Endera?" She tried to process the information, her fearful mind conjuring up various scenarios. "Those...pirates?"

"You could call them pirates, but more like Batman of the ocean—that's a human superhero." A hint of a smile tugged weakly at his lips. "At least, their naval wing."

"Huh?"

"They rammed the boat for trying to bottom trawl in an actual protected zone—what the government should care about, but doesn't. In fact—"

"What?" Her head failed to register what he was saying. "They have weapons on their very logo—it looked deadly."

"Weapons don't always destroy—they're used to defend."

"And how do you know them?"

"Because I've been on that ship before I started my work down in the deep."

Her ears filled with the rush of waves, which swelled higher, buoying them up. The image of his black shirt popped into mind, even though he wasn't wearing it now. It bore a resemblance to the shirt the bearded man wore on the "pirate ship".

"Why should I trust you?" Dea finally lashed out, voice rising an octave. "I don't know you humans. I don't know anything about you. You could invite me to a party one minute and send me off to your secret facility the next."

Confusion flickered across his face. "Secret facility?"

"Oh, you didn't know about it? Same way you didn't know about," Dea trilled, pointing in the direction of the processing factory, "that hell on Earth? Oh, you did know. You just didn't think it's worth mentioning to me or to my people."

He was quiet, hand frozen on the craft's hull.

"Or maybe it's me—I was too stupid to see. They kill the seas." Dea found it hard to articulate her thoughts as emotion choked her. "And Burpy. They..."

She couldn't say it. Saying it out loud was admitting that it was real. Her brain refused to accept it. The knife in her heart twisted, and the pain made her lean on the Angler's viewport, clutching herself.

The wind blew stronger while she hyperventilated, rocking back and forth. Rivulets of water dripped down from her sopping locks and mingled with her tears.

Anuk's hand brushed her arm, his touch gentle.

She flinched and withdrew. "Don't touch me."

It was as if she slapped him, and his voice emanated in a hushed rumble, "Tell me what happened."

"No, leave me alone!" Dea backed away.

"I should never have given you the Cypod or let you come anywhere near here." He let out a shaky sigh and raked a hand through his wet hair. "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry..."

"That's what you're sorry about?" Dea almost slid down on her climb to the top hatch. "No, I had to see that—I needed to know what my people are up against. I needed to know what Burpy went through after they snatched him. I needed to know...even if it scarred me."

The roll of distant thunder and gusts of wind silenced the words Anuk said in response. She did catch what sounded like "princess", and it did nothing to allay her distress.

"Thank you for helping me," she said with a note of finality.

For an instant, she watched him rocking on the darkening waves. A part of her believed that he couldn't be like Dilip. He seemed to be a "mudskipper" too—an oddity that didn't speak for the rest of his kind. That was precisely why their paths wouldn't cross again.

A sob rattled her chest. When thunder growled ever closer, the acute jab of urgency made her focus on her journey home.

Dea shimmied down into the seat and banged the hatch shut.

Quick Note: The Sinhalese word endera means "shepherd". It might interest you to know that Endera's naval wing was inspired by a real marine conservation group called the Sea Shepherd. They have a fleet of awesome ships and act as the last line of defense for endangered animals like the vaquita porpoise. Yep, they also have a pirate flag!

Head over to their YouTube and check out the work they do in the oceans! Anyone can volunteer on their ships as well. >>

Here's a cool volunteer engineer taking you on a tour of one of their ships. >>

Animal: Mudskipper

https://youtu.be/CAQuoH_fOWM