Darker is in a tube, like a reverse fishbowl, he looks out on a watery scene from inside the dry glass wall that surrounds him. He has a clear view of the place he is held. It is like a laboratory, similar to Eakran’s at the IBF on Earth. It’s been a long time since he’s thought about the friends that he’d traveled with when he left Earth. He’s not sure how long it’s been since the explosion that destroyed their ship and left him here. He doesn’t know how long he floated in space before he landed on this strange planet, and it’s been a long time since he arrived wherever he is now, since he was captured and held on a submarine, and then locked inside of this tube miles underwater. He knows he is deep underwater, he could feel the pressure changes as he was transported, but the eel people seem to have technology that alleviates the effects as he dwells in the depths. He is inside of a building, in a city that could have been a city on Earth, but deep underwater. Darker hasn’t resisted much to this point because he is awed by the spectacle of Krognian civilization. And what would he do with freedom on a planet foreign to him and deep underwater that he could possibly survive, but only to still be stranded with no means to leave the planet and reconvene with the few people he did know so far away from Earth? The food they feed him is much better than the UI provisions and his captors don’t seem excessively cruel or out to hurt him, they just keep him contained and seem to want to understand him.
He sits in his glass tube, waiting for the Krognian known as Hrruil who has been speaking with him and learning about the strange situation that brought him to the planet Vwrawl. Hrruil is kind and she sometimes drains an entire room of its water so they can sit in an environment that feels familiar to Darker. He notices the water level outside his tube slowly decreasing and it means that she is here and he could finally find out the fate of his friends. He’d asked about them earnestly the last time they spoke and though she hadn’t shared information about the individuals he’d traveled with, she informed him that he landed on Vwrawl twenty strong currents ago, which corresponds to about a month on Earth. Krognians use the strong current to mark the passage of time as it sweeps across the oceans on a steady schedule, influenced by the closest moon of Vwrawl. Hrruil has seemed to be very honest with Darker so far, but he doesn’t understand why he is locked up as he has been. Hrruil won’t explain that.
Darker stands when the room is clear of water. The tube around him rises and Hrruil greets him with what he knows to be a smile, though her face is scary to look at. Krognians are not ugly, Darker has decided, they have familiar enough features that make them humanoid and some are handsome in their own way, but a Krognian smile is hard for an Earthling to understand as a show of friendship. They puff their gills up and they part their lips in a way that really accentuates how long they are, and their sharp bottom teeth are exposed like a secret buzzsaw in their mouths. But Darker has spent enough time with Hrruil that he knows she is greeting him as a friend and he even imitates the look, jutting out his jaw and rolling back his lips. She waves at him as a show that she has been paying attention to his lessons on Earthling greetings.
“Great news,” she says through the robotic voice of the translator built into her headset that records her interactions with Darker. She speaks in Krriwwl, but the translator speaks louder in English. The translator’s English has improved over the course of its interactions with Darker and he has even taught it many slang and curse words and colloquial phrases. “I have been authorized to answer a lot of your questions and there have been some very interesting developments as of late.”
“You found my friends?” Darker asks hopefully. Hrruil has brought him food and as she serves him, he sits at the table. She serves herself and sits.
“You were aboard the IP Self Sustaining Vessel 77810, assigned to an IP Representative known as Eakran 15 of the planet Druont for an exploratory mission.”
Darker nods. He remembers that information from Eakran’s manuals, though not exactly. It sounds right.
“How do you know?” Darker asks, more curious if she will tell him than of the answer.
“It is news, you cannot access the IP news transmissions without hearing about it. The reports says three Earthlings were lost in an attack on Representative Eakran’s ship. We assume that you were among them.”
“There were four Earthlings on the ship, and Eakran.”
Hrruil’s eyes look to be full of hope that she can give Darker news that will make him happy. “Eakran and an Earthling were recovered by the IP.”
“So what happens now? Have you told him I’m here?”
Suddenly Hrruil’s eyes are not so kind. They are neutral, big and round and delivering a message for someone else too important to see him in person.
“Of course not. You are special, Earthling Darker. You are a prize of the North Mother. A war rages on our southern border because of you.”
Darker nods. “Why were we attacked in space?”
“Representative Eakran. He has enemies that would have seen him perish. Now you are a hot commodity, Earthling Darker. I can only assume that your attacker will use you as leverage against the Representative. It is all so intriguing. And good news for you. You are assured of your safety, at least until the Representative is captured.”
Darker is very confused, but he doesn’t want Hrruil to know that part of him is panicking at the strangeness of all of this and he wonders which one of his friends was able to survive with Eakran, and how.
“Aren’t Representatives of the IP protected?” Darker wonders. He assumed that an IP Representative was similar to a diplomat on Earth who enjoyed special privileges and protections in foreign lands, but it seems that there is some plot against Eakran that the IP was unable to stop.
“The IP is well respected and has existed for a very long time, but they are largely a research institution, with no military. Their representatives make diplomatic agreements with governments as they see fit. I don’t fully understand the nature of the conflict with Representative Eakran, we Krognians are only involved because we are in possession of an Earthling who was traveling with the Representative.”
Darker is quiet and he eats what he tells himself are shrimp in a thick butter sauce. Then he says,
“How much longer will I be here?”
“Not many more strong currents. The North Queen will trade you to the ones who attacked your ship.”
Darker shakes his head, it can’t be good for him. He might make it out of the water and off of Vwrawl, but he wouldn’t get his home back with Maria. She was the only reason he had a will to live, though his experience to this point has proven that death is not an easy thing for him to attain. It seems he is really lost, and so is Maria, unless he can save Eakran from whatever is threatening him. Maybe there is a hope Maria survived.
– – –
There is war in the disputed waters between the North and Equatorial Queendoms. The Northern Defense Squadron is working to repel the advance of the Equatorial Tactical Corps that is bolstered by help from the Queendom of the East, who want the being, the Earthling known as Darker, to be returned to the IP.
The war wages at the tip of the Equatorial plain, which slides incrementally over a northern continental plate and creates the large rift that is the recognized undersea border between the North and the Equatorial regions. The islands that form on the surface over this rift are disputed because many of the undersea mountains form from the northern continental plate, but because of the encroaching Equatorial plane, the mountains tended to breach the surface over Equatorial waters.
The war rages around the underwater rift that is not home to any residential settlements because of the disputed nature of the region, so the conflict is particularly brutal without fear of civilian casualty. It has been waged for twenty strong currents, and consists mostly of posturing and damaging sophisticated military vessels of the North’s Defense Squadron, and the combined forces of the Equatorial Tactical Corps and the Eastern Military Assembly. The Squadron of the North is the largest military on the planet Vwrawl which makes the North Queen the Dominant Queen Mother, capable of imposing her will on other Queendoms. The Dominance is always challenged, though there are not many military disputes between Queendoms and they prefer diplomacy to settle disagreements.
The subs of the north occupy the water like huge whales that can literally swallow enemy subs and disassemble them for parts, usually killing everyone onboard. The large northern subs are equipped with substantial shield technology that allows them to take considerable damage and form a barrier of defense that is also capable of offense. Large sub cannons are usually set to obliterate.
The large subs have successfully held back the surprise flank from the East; the North was unaware that the East was even aware of the situation. This effort, though, has exhausted the Northern Squad against Equatorial Corps that use mid-sized subs capable of quick and nimble movement through the water. They can maneuver to attack the vulnerabilities of the northern large subs and they have managed to decommission two so far. There is also an elite unit of Eastern Assemblymen who use long staffs equipped with laser technology and jet boosters who are able to sabotage enemy vessels, or to infiltrate them.
Vruhl, the Northern Queen, is stalling. She is far away from the conflict, on the surface of the ice cap at the most northern tip of the planet. She has been in intense negotiations with visitors at the Surface Palace of the North for a while now, for many strong currents. Privruhl is with her, as is Surivruhl, her regent in matters with beings of alien worlds. The Surface Palace is a large structure that is the tip of the underwater palace of the North Queen. It is elaborate and beautiful, like a castle made of white stone to blend into the icy environment. The main room of the surface palace is grand like a cathedral with high ceilings and lit by natural sunlight through the large elaborate windows that seemed to intensify the light shining through. There is a long table for negotiations in the back of the main room, Vruhl and her regents sit elevated on one side, and they are attended by five alien beings who occupy chairs as an audience.
“If I am not guaranteed a dedicated warpway between Vwrawlian airspace and the Banned Regions, then I see no need for any of this. It is what I was promised. Your drug addicted leader promised me this.” Vruhl’s universal translator speaks in a stern voice, using the native language of the beings of the planet Oin, known as Ointites.
“Your Dominance,” an Ointite in the audience of the Queen says, “I am to assure you that everything is being done to secure your warpway, but you understand the difficulty of this. The IP has worked hard to limit access to these regions as its support for the refugee community there has increased.”
“Why am I being lectured to by one as insignificant as yourself?” Vruhl is visibly upset. “You and your cabal are vicious murderers and your dark plots have only brought trouble to my world, but I bare those consequences to secure my warpway. This Earthling you came here for, he is very special indeed, but you will never know until I have what I ask for. Leave before I am furthur offended and do not return until you can assure me of my request. Tell you leader that I can only hold off my sisters for a few more cycles, after that, the being will be returned to the IP and to Eakran, and you can be assured that the Queens’ Forces on Vwrawl will rise in opposition to your efforts.”
The Ointites leave promptly. Vruhl smiles at her regents.
“Prepare the Earthling, bring him here. The Ointites will return soon with favorable news. Their masters don’t want us involved in whatever they are planning against the IP. They will move the heavens to avoid that.”
“You are shrewd, Queen Mother,” Surivruhl says. “Vwrawl will only prosper with direct access to the Banned Regions and its resources. We won’t have to rely on so many alien smugglers. And it is impossible to obtain an IP sanctioned warpway with it’s negotiated protections with so many known smugglers exploiting the established warpways that exist. None of my entreaties as the Krognian representative to the IP have yielded results. We simply don’t banish enough krogs there, and we don’t provide enough aid to the refugees. Why don’t your Queen sisters understand this?”
“It’s why I am the Dominance, my girl. I can see what they are too naive to see. Sometimes progress is only made through deals with devils.”
PRL Serials 