It wasn’t a whaling ship, but whatever this thing was, taking water off this planet wasn’t good for the ecosystem here. I didn’t know what kind of creatures lived here, but they had a right to live freely, to survive on their own damn planet. I knew that whatever was happening to the water, it was happening right under my feet.
It had pulled me right to it, like it truly was sucking the water through a great big straw. But where was it going? How did water transport, and in such quantities? Two percent of the planet’s water had already been taken?
I had no intention of being stupid, but fighting a current was the easiest way to die and I had exactly zero chance of swimming up, away from this thing. Instead I felt my way to the edge of the platform, which appeared to be about ten feet wide, and used the downward pull of the water to sink to the ocean floor. I found what I was looking for on the bottom a few inches away, a rock twice the size of my fist. I picked it up and walked along the outer edge of the device, feeling my way with one gloved hand, until I felt a surge in water pressure pulling my arm toward the object.
Bracing myself against the hard side, I took position to throw the rock toward the intake area. If this was where the water was going into the machine, the rock was definitely big enough to throw a huge wrench in the works. At least, that’s what I was hoping. If I could block the suction somehow, I could swim away from this thing without having a heart attack. I really, really needed to start exercising more.
“Here goes nothing.” I said.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Surnen asked.
“Mikki? This is Maxim. You will return to shore and join the others for transport back to The Colony immediately.”
“I’m trying,” I replied. This thing—or ninety-four of them—was more than I could solve on my own.
With adrenaline pumping through me, I tried to throw the rock toward the strong pull of water.
A loud clang had me making a fist in victory as I pushed myself back, then a little farther, away from the main pull of the machine. The flow of water holding me here weakened, and I didn’t waste any time moving away. I sensed at once when I was out of its reach and began to swim toward shore. “It worked. On my way.”
The sound changed all of a sudden, a loud boom making me wince inside my helmet.
“Fuck,” Giram snapped. “There was an energy spike. Something is happening out there.”
No kidding.A whirring noise replaced what had been a quiet hum, and the suction returned several times as strong. So fucking strong I couldn’t gain any ground despite the fact that I was halfway to the surface. It was pulling me back. I used my arms, kicked, but I was caught in the suction. “It’s working harder now. It’s caught me, and I’m being pulled toward it. It’s sucking me in!”
“Find her exact coordinates and transport her out. Now!” Maxim snapped.
“There’s no transport beacon. The suit is not military grade.”
I could hear voices arguing in my comms, but I was breathing hard, trying to fight the machine’s power. If it was sucking water from the planet and transporting it somewhere, I didn’t want to go wherever the water was going. Especially if it was being taken by the Hive.
Shit. This was going to be bad.