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Phoebe refused to take her eyes off the shimmering forest. “C’mon...”
After a few more seconds, she spotted a subtle change, so faint it could be wishful thinking. Tiny trickles of light flowed into the darkness.
“Look.” She pointed—more to make sure what she was seeing was real.
Datuk leaned over her shoulder.
The trickles became streams, then radiant rivers.
“They’re coming,” Datuk whispered at her ear.
TheCormorantrushed to meet them. In another two hushed breaths, the vehicle was swamped by their flowing shapes, their sweeping arms. The flock circled in a candescent eddy of curiosity.
“I can’t see anything,” Bryan said.
Hopefully that’s true of another.
Bryan cut the thrusters before they crashed. TheCormorantwas bombarded by the cries and calls of the creatures. It grew so loud that it drowned out the torpedo’s pinging.
Phoebe prayed the chorus would act like a sonar blanket. Military submarines sometimes took advantage of a similar situation, using the loud bubbling from colonies of pistol shrimp to hide their boat from searchers on the surface.
She pressed her palm against the glass. Her movement drew a swirl of luminous black eyes, peering back at her.
Adam reported with awe. “The torpedo lost its lock. Its path is erratic. I think it might—”
A thunderous boom shook theCormorant. A shockwave shoved the vehicle hard, crashing them sidelong into a coral trunk.
As they bounced off, the polyps continued to swirl around.
A loud splintering echoed behind them. It sounded massive. More of the same followed, sweeping closer. The crackling sounded like a forest fire rushing toward them.
Phoebe knew what she was hearing. The torpedo blast must have felled one of the coral giants. She pictured the huge tree toppling toward theCormorant.
“We’re moving,” Bryan said.
“What do you mean?” Adam asked.
Bryan lifted his hands from his controls. “It’s not me.”
Phoebe pressed her nose to the glass, meeting a large eye staring back. She recognized the bright intelligence shining in that luminous glow.
“It’s them,” she said. “They’re pushing us through the forest, trying to get us out of the way.”
The crackling grew louder—then thundered into a mighty crash on their left. The impact shook theCormorant. Still, they were carried forward.
The waters slowly brightened, even through the press of creatures. Finally, the view opened up as the swirling mass swept aside. The polyps had accomplished their mission. They had rescued the beleaguered strangers and drew them home.
Phoebe laughed. She couldn’t help herself. “It’s so beautiful.”
A glowing wonderland surrounded them. Giant black boles twisted through the water, casting out huge canopies of branches. The trunks were streaked and painted with shining mats of algae. Elsewhere, waving bushes marked the presence of giant anemone-like creatures, which glowed in hues of every color imaginable.
But it was the keepers of this garden that held Phoebe’s attention. Everywhere, radiant and flickering polyps jetted throughout the forest. They swirled into and out of nests, tussling and rolling. Others spun joyously across the water. They came in sizes as small as her fist, to massive giants that hung shyly back.
Phoebe leaned her forehead to the glass, wishing she could swim among them. She remembered the joy she experienced freediving, both in her native Barbados and along the California coast. To be one with the ocean and its creatures. To accept the limitations of her species, while honoring life in all its myriad forms.
Adam offered sobering words. “We’re too late.”
With great effort, she tore her eyes from the view.
