Taken By The Shark

“It is imperative that you learn this skill if you wish to survive in the sea,” she replied, pursing her lips in thought.   “We shall begin this training first thing tomorrow morning before anyone else awakens.   I will also be showing you how to tend to the hydroponic garden so that none will guess that anything more is taking place.   Do you understand?”

“I’m putting my life in your hands, Sirenia,” Chelsea said with a nod.

“That’s what I like to hear,” she smiled.   “Come, let us go.   I believe we gathered everything we’re going to need here.”

*****

The meal was over and everyone had headed back to the boat. Steve had come along to ferry them out to the drop point, and just half an hour later they were there. Chelsea was going over everything she’d learned about navigating a pod while in complete darkness, and she was stoked to give it a try.

Just before getting into the respective vessels, Mark bent over and gave Chelsea a quick kiss, which she willingly returned. “You be careful, Chels. Don’t try anything funny, just do it completely by the book, and I’m sure you’ll be fine. All right?”

“Of course,” she agreed. “Don’t worry, okay? I’m not even nervous or anything.”

“That’s good,” he nodded, then turned to speak to the others. “You guys ready for this?”

“I don’t know, Marky, maybe you should give me a kiss too,” Erik teased him.

“Or a swift kick in the ass,” Mark replied. “That can be a pretty powerful motivator too.”

“Let’s go, already,” Ross complained. “Been waiting all day.”

Over the radio, Steve’s voice crackled. “Sky’s clear and I don’t detect any satellite activity, sir. It’s now or never.”

“Move it out, people,” Mark said then, and everyone went swiftly to their designated pods and were soon sealed inside.

Chelsea’s communicator crackled as reports came in. “Cargo hauler is away. Pods one and two have dropped. Okay, Chelsea and Erik, bring up the rear. Radio silence commences now.”

Dropping the pod, Chelsea activated the guidance map and used it to make her depth three hundred feet. At a flash of the running lights on the much larger vessel ahead of them, she switched her own lights on as well and continued to follow, quickly diving down as she went. They took their time to make sure everyone arrived together, so it took a while to finally see the station come into view.

Chelsea, dock four is on the far side. Turn on your tracking lights so you can spot the number, Mark told her using the communicator.

Will do, she replied. She maneuvered her pod to the designated landing bay and docked it flawlessly there.

“Okay, commencing equalization, ladies,” she said. “You may want to pop your ears a bit, this is likely to get pretty intense.”

She threw a switch beside the blinking red light, and the rush of air literally took her breath away for a few moments before the pressure built up inside the pod. They sat there getting used to the change from one earth atmosphere to three, and then Chelsea finally broke the seal on the bottom hatch so they could all climb down into the station itself. She was the last person out, and she left the hatch open so the supplies could be brought down after everyone had regrouped.

“Well, since we were on the far side of the station, I’m going to guess that we should head over to where everyone else is,” Chelsea said then.

Looking around the place, Chelsea saw that the walls had been painted two-toned, with a cream shade at the top and a lovely sea-green shade at the bottom. The tiles on the floor were painted with directional arrows and labels here and there explaining what rooms they would be headed to if they followed them.

“This is really cool,” she said. “Come one, guys, let’s follow these to the cargo bay. That’s got to be where Mark is right now.”

Erik, Dan, Ross, and some guy named Brian joined them out in the hall. He said, “We should probably just ask if he wants us to bring the gear down before traipsing off to the other side of the station when we could be more useful here at the moment, don’t you think?”

“Well, I suppose so,” she admitted. “I was just excited to look around, but I know that you’re right. I’ll do it now.”

They all heard a loud, bubbling sound, and then their ears popped.

“He’s taken the station down to two atmospheres,” Chelsea finally decided. “Sounds like we’re sealed in now, gang.” Into the receiver she asked, “Did you want us to unload the pods, Mark, or would you rather have us rejoin you?”

“The other crew will unload the pods shortly.”

“Other crew?’ she repeated curiously.

“Yeah, the twenty people already down here right now,” he said. “Now that the pods have arrived, they’ll want to use them to return to the surface, so they get to empty them first while I orient my team to their new home. Don’t worry, they won’t lose anything they unload.”

“That’s good to know,” she said.

“Come on down to the cargo bay with the others, and then I can show you all around.”

“You heard the man,” Chelsea said, and the eight of them did as they were told.

*****

“You have your own room as well, Chelsea, but adjoining mine,” Mark explained. “The designer was well aware that people down here would—well, you know, share beds—so he built the place with that sort of thing in mind.”

“Then all the rooms join?” asked Ross hopefully. “Melissa, where is your room? May as well take the one next door—just in case.”

“Shut up!” Melissa said with a blush.

“He does make a good point, though,” Erik pointed out, winking in Angel’s direction. She gasped with surprise. Although she had been thinking of pursuing him, she hadn’t begun to think he might be thinking the same thing about her.