SEA MONKEYS part 2

Copyright (c) 2019 by Randall R. Peterson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This is a work of fiction. All persons, locations and actions are from the author's imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner

.

SEA MONKEYS

Part 2

By R. Peterson

It only took Benny Bateman a few minutes to adjust to the current as he swam with Tanwen off the Pacific coast near Oceanside, California. The invisible-under-water Moonraker, he wore as a face mask, allowed him to breathe while submerged. “You’ve lived here all this time after my mother flushed you down the toilet?” Benny was surprised that he could still speak below the crashing waves. It took a moment before he realized that he wasn’t really speaking but was reading and projecting thoughts. The stunning Sea Monkey princess made gestures with her hands and he could hear her voice in his mind.

“Your mother is a fine woman and I’m sure you love her very much. She helped us even though she didn’t know what she was doing,” Tanwen explained as she guided him along the sandy bottom. “She thought, as most people do, that Sea Monkeys were just dried brine shrimp eggs that come to life when you add water. If she had looked closer, she would have seen that we were a unique species. We call ourselves the Eiriol and we have an advanced society.”

“How can you live in the Pacific Ocean and not have humans know you are here?” Benny was aware that the rocks and shells on the ocean floor appeared to be getting larger.

“The Moonraker does more than allow you to breath under water,” Tanwen told him. “It causes our bodies to contract along with the water pressure. The greater the water pressure, the smaller we get.

“This is amazing,” Benny gasped. Some of the embedded sea shells they passed were as big as houses.

“Not really,” Tanwen gave him a smug look. “It’s natural science. Before the Big Bang, the entire universe was contracted into what scientists call a singularity and it was smaller than an atom.”

“How can you live underwater and know so much?” Benny and Tanwen swam past a Hermit crab that looked the size of an elephant. Underwater plants towered above them like trees.

“All life began in the sea and all knowledge comes from it,” Tanwen said. “We never stopped gaining knowledge and evolving just because a few lesser life forms moved elsewhere.”

“This all seems so unreal,” Benny said. Moonlight filtered into the area they were crossing and swaying plants, in a rainbow of colors, dazzled his eyes. “It’s like a dream.”

“All life is an illusion!” Tanwen struggled to move a large flat rock on the sandy bottom. Benny helped her. “So in a way this and everything else is a dream. Our senses detect signals like molecular vibrations and reflected light and our mind transforms them into sounds and images. It does the same thing when you’re sleeping … only without the obvious signals.”

“Obvious?”

“Well the signals have to come from somewhere.”

Tanwen pushed the flat rock to one side and Benny could see what looked like a lighted tunnel. “Tenellis is built just under the North American Continental Plate and behind a tidal-wall to keep out our enemies,” Tanwen explained. “These conduits allow us to enter and leave the city without crashing against the surf.”

Benny followed her into the tube. The lights came from tiny phosphorescent rings embedded in the cylinder walls. They appeared to be changing colors. Tanwen noticed him looking at the glowing circles. “The Tresto do more than light our passages,” she told him. “They derive nourishment from the sea water and act as a warning signs for intruders.”

“They were a blue color when we entered but now they appear to be green,” Benny touched one of the Tresto with his finger and it curled into a ball.

“If you had been a Groma, the Tresto would have turned bright red … right after it stung you!”

“What’s a Groma?”

“A Groma is a genetically recoded organism, a so called artificial life-form, created by your human scientists to clean up oil spills,” Tanwen explained. “Unfortunately for us, what your scientists have created are raging monsters that devour all petroleum based substances that come from the fossils of plants and tiny marine organisms. Not just oil, but many life forms are made from the transformed remains of long dead creatures, including the Eiriol.”

“What do these Groma look like?” They were exiting the tunnel into a large and spacious area. There appeared to be little or no current. A forest of sea plants covered the ocean floor.

 “You’ll see what they look like soon enough,” Tanwen gasped.

In the distance Benny could see a magnificent green castle rising from the ocean floor. Dark swirling clouds appeared to surround the glistening towers and ramparts.

            “The Groma must have broken through the tidal wall. Tenellis is under siege!”

-------2-------

            Tanwen and Benny swam through a forest of kelp plants so as not to be seen by the hordes of Grom attacking the castle. Benny thought that they must be the smallest thing in the ocean but everywhere tiny life forms skittered out of their way.

            Tanwen stopped suddenly and took what looked like a crossbow from her back. She peered intently through the underwater foliage. “What is it?” Benny whispered.

            “I’m not sure,” Tanwen told him. “I think something is following us.”

She removed a metal arrow from a quiver on her back and fitted it to her bow. Benny listened carefully. He could hear something crashing through the kelp too.

            Tanwen raised the crossbow and was just about to fire when a creature that looked almost identical to her stumbled out of the foliage. A cloud of what had to be blood floated into the water above her. “Help me,” she moaned.

            “Taniss!” Tanwen gasped.

            “You know her?” Benny had been looking for a rock or something to arm himself with and was still looking.

            “She’s my sister.”

Tanwen ran to the Eiriol just as she fell. “What happened?”

            “After you left the castle I followed you along with Demoda and Grenta,” Taniss said. “We were ambushed by a Groma patrol. I was the only one who escaped.”

            “What would you do something that foolish for,” Tanwen blurted.

            “Why did you have to go outside the castle alone?” Taniss glared at Benny.

            “I can’t explain right now,” Tanwen told her, “but it’s important. Right now we have to get you back to the castle.”

            “I’m being followed,” Taniss gasped. “Leave me or none of us will make it!”

            “How many?” Tanwen handed Benny her crossbow and quiver full of arrows and then picked up her sister.

            “Just one,” Taniss moaned as Tanwen laid her across her shoulder. “But he’s large, fast and carries a scoona.”

            “What’s a scoona?” Benny adjusted the straps so that the quiver of arrows did not jiggle while he moved.

            “It’s  a long pole with a cluster of poisonous spines on the end,” Tanwen explained.

            “Does your friend even know how to fire a Kenograt,” Taniss whispered just before she closed her eyes.

            “No, but he’ll learn.” Tanwen was already moving. She looked back at Benny who was trying to figure out how to load the weapon. “Catch,” she said as she threw Benny what looked like a curved handle from a cooking pot. “Stick the small end in the slot in the right hand side of the Kenograt,” she said. “Then crank it clockwise until it stops. Don’t put an arrow in the slot until just before you’re ready to shoot.”

            Benny stared at the weapon. It had a trigger somewhat like the one on his father’s shotgun and he could see the slot where the arrow rested.

            “Don’t just stand there!” Tanwen’s voice was almost a shout. “Move!”

Benny tried to follow her and study the weapon at the same time. He put the crank in the side and was turning it when a thrashing noise came from behind.

A large creature with multiple spider-like eyes burst from the kelp. The broken stems of aquatic plants rose toward the surface like a beacon. Dozens of whip-like tubes flowed from all sides of an insecticidal abdomen. A tapered tail churned the water like a propeller. Several of the tubes were wrapped around the pole-like device which it held over its head as it ran toward them. Benny could see the ends of the spine clusters sizzling and cracking like live electrical wires coming in contact with water.

            “Shoot it!” Tanwen screamed. She dropped her sister and was running toward him.

Benny furiously spun the crank two more times. Time seemed to slow. One of the poison spines from the end of the scoona whipped past his ear just as he put an arrow into the slot. His hands felt like they were trying to move through cement. The creature had at least a dozen eyes. Most of them were turned directly at him. They were mostly red and purple and they grew in brightness as a wide mouth filled with several rows of needle-sharp teeth opened. A tongue like a soft sponge explored his neck below the Moonraker.

There was no time to aim. Benny lifted the Kenograt and pulled the trigger just as his head exploded in agony. The pain raced to his toes in an instant. There was a taste in his mouth that reminded him of rotten bird eggs. He tried to swallow but his throat appeared to be swollen. The weapon slipped - or was pulled - from his hands.

The world beneath the ocean was spinning and Benny floated … as he was sucked into darkness.

TO BE CONTINUED …