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She dropped her hands from the controllers and let the sub slow to a halt. “Fuck.”
“That is not a lady-like word.”
“Beta...” She squeezed her eyes shut and reminded herself that the droid was here to help her. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
“It’s your mission. I am not to interfere.”
She was going to open the panel the droid was stored in and rip it out. Just so she could maybe toss it into the ocean for a little while, so it would have to get home on its own.
But then she would be alone in the ocean, and she wasn’t certain she wanted to deal with that either. Sighing, she thumped her head against the back of the stiff seat. “So, what do you suggest?”
“Charging the batteries with solar energy, while we use the rest of the whale oil to maintain life support.”
“Right.” That was the logical step. Not to push her luck and see just how far she could go before the air started getting really thin.
Narrowing her eyes, she leaned forward to guide them to a spot that was a little more safe. It wasn’t that she was reckless or too young to be doing this. Alys just lived a very quiet life outside of this submarine and every time she got in it she got a little... well. Reckless.
Soon enough, she found soft sand to put the submarine down in. There was a small kelp forest nearby, and they were close enough to the surface for the sun's rays to reach her ship, and also for her to swim up if life support went down. At the very least, she could breathe ashy air for a while and tread water.
Maybe Beta realized what she was doing. “You can’t breathe the air up there, Alys. It will burn your lungs.”
“Better a good lung burning than dying without oxygen down here.” Unbuckling herself, she leaned the chair back so she could at least relax while she was down here.
Besides, she had the best view on the planet right now.
Small schools of brightly colored fish swam through the kelp. A seal even turned to look at her, those big black eyes seeing so much. She scooted closer to watch all the plants and animals burst to life.
It took a while. Even she wasn’t surprised by that. The sub landing had stirred up dust and sand, so it was hard to see them, anyway. But at the arrival of some kind of giant creature in their midst, everything always hid.
Soon, creatures bloomed like a flower. First, it was the schools of fish, those who were used to larger animals in their midst. Then the crustaceans dug out of the sand where they had hid, returning to finding their food in the thin dust and sand. Then a few turtles even swam before the lights of her submarine.
Beta clinked in its panel. “You should turn the lights off, Miss Alys. You’re wasting energy.”
“You want me to sit in the dark?” she snorted. “I’m not going to miss a second of this.”
The ash would eventually settle. She had Beta send a message to her father to let him know she had gotten stuck, but that she’d return once the sub charged up again. It must not have been too much of a surprise for her father, because he didn’t reply with anything other than a single word.
“Okay.”
No one could say her father didn’t trust her, at least.
She must have dozed off for a little while, because the lights were off when she snapped back awake. Alys shook her head, blinking the grit out of her eyes as she tried to figure out why she had woken at all.
Rubbing the headache between her eyes, she sat up and let her boots thud onto the floor. Her pants were wet, somehow. And when she looked up, she could see the hatch was dripping in the dim blue interior lights. Damn it. A leak?
“The last thing I need,” she muttered, standing up to press her finger against the leak. Not a bad one, by any means. But it did mean the hull wasn’t as sturdy as she’d originally thought.
This was fine. She could fix this. They had a welder in here somewhere, and if she had to seal herself inside the sub until she could get home, then that was fine.
“Beta?” she asked, turning to rummage through one of the storage containers. “Do you know where I put the welder?”
“Miss Alys, I don’t think we’re alone anymore.”
“Very funny. Did Dad send someone to find me, after all?” She yanked out what felt like a welder, but ended up being the broken end of a screwdriver. “Damn it.”
“Alys!” Beta’s voice was a little harsher this time. “Turn around.”
Sighing, she had a whole rant on the tip of her tongue to scold the droid for trying to scare her, but then all the words disappeared the moment the droid turned on the lights outside of the pod.
