Pull (originally published as Deep Darkness v1)

The Undertow - Part 2

Part 2

Another day at the river.

Hayden blended in with the red river as he swam under me and grabbed my legs pulling me underneath. I returned the favor by dunking him. He might have been a Drok but I knew all his moves. After Hayden it was Aira's turn for a dive. Grabbing her hands we went around in circles creating waves around us. Finally I made my way around her and with our combined weight we sank underwater. I opened my eyes and waved watching her do the same. Bubbles came out of our mouths as we said, "hello" before making our way back to the top. Hayden had been watching us laughing. As I was taking what felt like my first breath I saw that Dom was nowhere to be seen.

"Hayden, where is Dom?" Aira was the first to ask.

"I thought he was down there with you?" We all looked around already knowing where he had gone. Dom was the bravest of the four of us. He was always getting into trouble, getting us into trouble. He was always the first one of us to talk to a new alien or climb to the roof of a tower. He was also the best swimmer among us but we all knew better then to go into the deep... further down the red river. Dom had always said he would swim in there. He was the fastest and strongest of us and we had no doubt he could. We just never tried - we knew it was wrong.

Aira screamed for help.

Hayden had to punch me in the ribs to hold me back from diving into the red. An Arr7 was nearby doing trade. It had heard Aira's human cry of pain and come running. It was massive. It had four long metal arms each with three pointy fingers. Its two legs carried all of its weight. Its long tail gave it perfect balance. It looked down on us with its long neck bent forward. I had never seen an Arr7 up close. Its face was spherical and it had two red lights that it used for eyes. The Arr7 only needed a few seconds to figure out what was going on.

Its mighty metal body jumped into the undertow that had swallowed Dom. In minutes a red and silver silhouette emerge. The sun glared off its metal body. Using its weight as an anchor, the Arr7 began walking towards us. In it's arms it held Dom. Some Pok nearby had called the emergency service and a dropship was already landing. The dropship looked like a dove in the distance, growing and growing. Wings spread up like it was the angel of mercy before it landed on the ground. An Eek emerged from the vehicle its long skinny arms held out a breathing apparatus. It looked like a plant I had seen like a Venus flytrap was wrapping itself around Dom's mouth.

I have had nightmares for years thinking about it.

Seeing his lifeless body struggle on the ground for air but no alien tech could save him. Aira was right, the river was red because of blood, and only it just wasn't blood in the physical sense.

"Nothing will ever be the same will it?" Aira asked.

I was riding in an air skiff holding her hand. Hayden had already been taken home. We were leaving the medical embassy; the only place where humans could be pronounced dead. We were only given a few hours to say goodbye. Dom's body displayed was before us. He looked like he was sleeping. They were preparing to freeze his body. Errikus didn't have graveyards. Those that died here were burned to ash and thrown in the dirt or had their bodies given to their species embassy.

"Dom will still see the stars with us," I said, "just because he is gone doesn't mean he is truly dead. He is a part of us." I was ready to cry but I felt this need to stay strong if not for myself then it was for Aira. My shirt was wet from her tears and I needed to be strong for her. I continued to speak, "Somewhere in time, somewhere out there someone is seeing trough Dom's eyes. They are seeing him make his mother smile, his father laugh. They are seeing him live his life over and overs."

When we got to the school our parents were all waiting for us. "I don't want to go home with you," Aira screamed. Her mother had always bad mouthed us and said if she could stay on Errikus she would. Not everybody was happy about leaving. Her mom was a sleeper. She would go in and out of hibernation every ten to twenty years only for short instances or trips off world. Most sleepers would spend most their time cooking or helping upkeep the ship when awake but they weren't awake often. Nexus users or simply users as we were called would be awake the most on the ship, sometimes cryo wouldn't even be necessary. I guess there was something about being trapped on a ship for so long and waking up in intervals to the same day after day that made them bitter. Aira was the first in her family to inherit the gene that would make her a user like me... and like me, Hayden, and the other users we would die long before anyone in cryo sleep ever woke up. Aira's mother was bitter. Between leaving the colony and going back to sleep she had nothing.