Subnautica: Echoes

Chapter 9: Heartbeats

Annis's eyebrows pinched together. "Why did you remain with them? If you didn't agree with their methods, surely you could have withdrawn from your position?"

Tell them, the Sea Emperor sovereign whispered into her consciousness. "That big ship in your ocean?" Lyra said, gesturing behind her as though she knew which way the wreckage of the Aurora lay. "My father was on board when it crashed. He was the only survivor, and after many trials here, he found the Sea Emperor Leviathan in an Architect aquarium. He helped her hatch her eggs and set the little ones free. Unfortunately, when he returned to Alterra, they slapped him with a rather heavy debt for the resources he'd used to survive. I only stayed with the company to help him pay off those debts quicker."

"Our oracles heard a name," Hiro told her, scrutinising her closely and sitting up in his seat. "They claim the freed Sea Emperor children whispered it to them before they scattered across the planet."

"Ryley Robinson," Lyra said on impulse. The councillors stared at her, awestruck, and faint murmurs arose behind them.

Shame overtook her. She could almost see him, worried, frantic, and alone. Pacing their apartment, or quarrelling with the governors. What had she done to him? What would he do now that the planet had potentially claimed his wife and his only child?

The bangles on Annis's wrists jangled as she rose from her seat, the sweet twinkling following her footsteps. Her fair features softened as she neared the outsider in their midst. "The blood you share with the man who freed the juveniles may explain recent events," she mused. "Did the Sea Emperor speak to you at all?"

"She talked of greedy hands reaching for things that weren't theirs and that the planet needed protecting." Lyra hesitated. Should she tell them about the woman? Trust them. This time the whisper held a chill, and she shuddered. "She also mentioned someone in the cold who may need help."

"Has she communicated anything to you recently?" Mella inquired. "For example, over the past few days?"

"Yes."

"What did she say?"

"Just a few seconds ago, she told me to trust you."

"And do you?"

Lyra glimpsed Siris out of the corner of her eyes before fixating on the line of councillors. She could sense the emotions thrumming within them, feel Annis's curiosity and kindness and Navine's growing boredom as though the sentiments were her own. But something snapped at the back of her mind. An awareness of disgust. Of hatred. She pinpointed it to the two central seats, Mella and Hiro perched between the curved arms. The revulsion simmered around them like a mist, noxious and reaching its slimy fingers towards her.

"Answer us," Mella demanded.

"You have not given me a reason to doubt you," Lyra replied, careful of her words. "I suppose in this situation, it is more a case of whether you trust me." She cocked an eyebrow and attempted to home in on the awakening senses, but just as swiftly as they'd materialised, they evaporated again.

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Annis asked, pacing the floor between the streams of water trickling through the thin channels in the midnight stone.

Lyra shook her head.

"Nothing at all?"

"Nothing."

Mella let out a noise of outrage and shot up, chest heaving with each breath she drew. Fury fluttered across the dark abyss in her eyes. "Do you not understand the severity of the situation?" she hissed. "Our queen has given you her powers instead of one of us. If you refuse to hand over the information we seek, we have ways of extracting it and we will-"