Subnautica: Echoes

Chapter 9: Heartbeats

Lyra's distorted reflection shifted in the glossy dark marble of the council hall floor. Her nails scraped the length of her palm as she fidgeted, streaking angry red marks along her skin.

Five high-backed seats lay bare at the foot of the rock steps, upon which many of the city's most powerful observed her. Their clothing shimmered in the white lights arranged across the panelled walls, an array of bronze and gold trim glittering against the sable stone. Some, Lyra noticed, were wearing darkened coronets inlaid with opals and pearls. She almost instinctively shrunk back in their presence. Siris hadn't told her much when he'd collected her from their apartment that morning, only that the council required to meet with her at once. She hadn't expected to be a spectacle for the upper-class members of their population.

The side door creaked open. Three women and a man joined them, their forms moving elegantly towards the chairs. Their deep robes swirled around them like a tide enrapturing their bodies, the metallic patterning of the hems catching in the sheen of silvery pools. They took their places at the head of the assembly and the chamber hushed.

"Welcome all," the councilwoman bathed in violet and gold announced in a soothing, lyrical tone. Her inky gaze glided to the stranger. "Especially you. Siris tells me your name is Lyra. Is that correct?"

"Yes," Lyra replied. She couldn't have sounded more like a mouse if she'd tried.

"It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Annis. My colleagues are Navine and Mella, and the man on the end is Hiro. I'm afraid our fifth councillor, Neres, isn't able to join us today." Annis examined the youthful woman. She could have seen twenty-six summers at the most, a tender age to have received such a power as the one now coursing through her. "Is it all right if we ask you some questions? Given the situation, I'm sure you can understand our curiosity."

Lyra nodded. The male councillor, Hiro, scribbled something on the tablet in his lap, the stylus waving along the screen. Had little Poseidon felt like this when she'd leaned down at his aquarium? Had he watched her scrawling her observations on his behaviour, wondering what she was writing?

"You work on the ships above the planet. Is that right?" Navine questioned, poising herself to write on the tablet she'd balanced on the arm of her chair. She shoved her bony shoulders back and tilted her head, elongating her already long neck.

"Yes," Lyra answered. "I mean, I did. I don't think I'd be welcome there now."

"What was your role there?" Mella asked.

"I was a junior researcher."

"Elaborate." Hiro's words were sharp, like a command more than a curious venture. Even her superiors on the Juno station had never spoken to her in such a ruthless manner.

Lyra swallowed and inhaled steadily to appease the fervent thud of her heart. Breathe. Her fingertips tingled as though she'd stuffed them in a bucket of static, and her palms stung where she'd clawed at them earlier. Breathe. Each instinct she had howled at her to run. Breathe. But it wasn't her voice she heard encouraging her to settle. It was pacifying. Lulled. The Sea Emperor Leviathan Siris had called their queen. "I served in the laboratory where I processed the samples coming in and studied them," she responded. "It was my responsibility to record how the creatures in our care acted and to test the plantlife for unique attributes. We wanted to know how life here worked." And what was valuable, she left unspoken.

"By taking what wasn't yours," Mella commented. A few of the elite representatives of their society hummed in agreement behind her.

"While I didn't take those samples myself, I will accept some responsibility for their removal," Lyra admitted. "I don't agree with what they're doing, but I did nothing to stop them."