He muttered something else, but then his gaze stared at the surface of the waves. That laser focus was unnerving. He was waiting for something, clearly, but she wasn't sure she was going to like what he had summoned.
A thud on top of the facility made her flinch. Then another, and another. The strange sounds continued all around them and reminded her that there wasn't really any safe place in the sea. Not for her, at least.
The hairs on her arms rose as the sounds continued until they were at the bottom of this floating building. She held her breath as a tentacled arm rose out of the water and stuck itself to the floor. Eight arms followed, covered with suckers, followed by two more arms with suckers on the ends, which the creature almost seemed to use like hands as the first squid pulled itself out of the water to stare up at Proteus. Its eyes were eerily human. She'd never seen eyes that looked at her with such intelligence and such hatred.
The hair on her arms stood up straight. She didn't want to anger a creature with such a sharp beak, nor was she all that interested in getting closer to them.
Ellie reached behind herself and pulled her chair farther away from the opening. Just in case.
The language Proteus started speaking was not one she was familiar with. It was strange listening to him speak. He made sounds that shouldn't be able to come out of a mortal throat, chirps and hiccups and guttural, throaty sounds.
The squid seemed to understand what he was saying, though. More tentacles looped out of the water, piling on top of others as their strange, gelatinous bodies rolled at the words. Clearly they were going to help or... do whatever it was that he had ordered them to do.
One by one, they all disappeared back into the water.
An unsettling feeling bloomed in her chest. She assumed he had asked for their help in fixing the far-off facilities, but also, she knew those buildings weren’t in the sea. Squid were not creatures that were meant to leave the water.
"What did you ask them to do?" she asked.
"They will fix what is broken, at least in the water. That will give us enough time to get there ourselves so we can fix what is out of the water." Again, his grin made every hair on her body stand on end.
He looked so powerful seated there, completely confident that his choices were correct. She had never seen someone who was so sure of himself. His body was stronger too, she realized. Rippling in muscle, glowing with power that was already deep inside of his bones, she had to wonder if she had unleashed something that could not be stopped. Maybe helping him hadn’t been the right choice after all.
"What do you mean when we fix the rest? I'm not an engineer. I don't know how to fix broken machinery."
"I am confident you will learn how to do so. Isn't that what your pod is for?" Proteus headed back into the water, that evil grin never budging from his face. But just before he sank beneath the surface, he turned to look at her. "You are very capable, Ellie. I do not know you, nor have I had much time to get to know you, but that much you have already proven."
He disappeared, likely heading off to help the squid. But...
She should be happy that he'd complimented her like that. She should feel better about herself. And she did, she supposed.She liked that someone saw how capable she was and how much she wanted to be seen as someone who was useful.
But it didn't feel all that good. Somehow it felt like maybe she had helped someone who didn't deserve to be helped. Like he was going to turn this world upside down, and she was part of that.
Looking at Pilot, she asked, "Do you think this is the right thing to do?"
"I am a droid, Ellie. I have been programmed to do what I have been told to do. I do not have an opinion on right or wrong." The droid headed back over to the consoles, typing in a few things that pulled up more code for it to go through. "I'm going to plan what you and Proteus will be doing once you get to the new location. You should rest."
Why was everyone always telling her to rest? She didn't want to rest. She wanted to live!
And yet, it seemed like this facility was just another prison. Still, she did not rest. She walked from one end to the other, over and over again, just to feel like she was still alive.
Nine
Proteus
His plan was coming together. The squid would head off and figure out what was broken. They were intelligent creatures. Even if they weren't proficient engineers, there weren't many puzzles that creatures like them couldn't figure out. He trusted them. Much more than he would sending anyone else, and that said something about the sorry state of affairs.
Proteus had no one. He had no one to fall back on, nor did he have any creatures who were really helpful. If he could speak with the People of Water, then perhaps he would have others who could assist him. The only issue with that was that the seafolk didn't remember him properly.
There were only a few creatures left in this entire sea who could help him, and they were the ones who had created him.
Proteus didn't like visiting his parents. Namely, because he'd never thought of them like that. They were his creators. The beings who had breathed life into something they created, but they certainly did not care if he survived. He was their tool to use when they desired to do so, but even then they rarelyremembered that he even existed. Perhaps that was the reason he’d been locked up for all those years and they hadn’t even tried to get him out.
They were very old. Everything to them was just a blip in time, unworthy of their attention. They had seen the future, they had seen the past, and they knew how fluid both were.
He remembered when he had first awoken how cold he had found them. Of course, it had taken him some time to realize that was what he had felt. He’d been raised to think their treatment of him was normal until he had seen proof that it wasn’t.
Proteus had snuck away to spy on the People of Water. He'd watched a mother and her child, flicking their tails as she taught the little girl how to swim. The joy on that mother's face had burned something inside of his chest.
