In Too Deep
Iliokai shot through the water faster than a sailfish, Ceph writhing and flashing in her arms.
Iliokai! Iliokai! STOP!
Even Ceph’s burst of bioluminescence didn’t faze the whale rider. Iliokai kept Ceph pinned to her body as she took her further and further away from her scientific breakthrough. First contact with an alien! What right did the seadog have to ruin this for her? Ceph struggled, feeling angry and helpless — or angry because she felt helpless. Iliokai must have known she was feeling these things — Ceph wasn’t being subtle in her communication — and the whale rider was ignoring her distress anyway.
Approaching the twilight zone, Ceph felt desperate enough to try for escape. She centered her senses, prepared her eight arms for the unknown experience of reduced pressure, and slid out of the tear in her siphonophore suit. It must’ve looked like the jellyfish pooped her out, or maybe like she hatched with a grace befitting her race, Ceph hoped. However it looked, Ceph felt the relief of being free.
Iliokai was already a speck in the murk, but that speck increased in size as Ceph watched. The whale rider must have turned back once she realized she’d lost her passenger. Or prisoner, Ceph’s muted colors roiled in brackish swirls. Then a jolt of bright yellow fear striped her arms. Iliokai was coming at her fast, intimidating as a leopard seal, eyes as unreasonable as a predator’s.
Ceph flung her eight arms wide. WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?
Iliokai altered her trajectory to a tight circle around Ceph. “What’s wrong with you?” the whale rider shouted, though Ceph was relieved to see her jaw remained hinged. “What were you even thinking trying to touch that thing?”
I could understand him, Ceph seeped into the water, better than I can understand you sometimes, she added, because she didn’t think Iliokai could pick up on the nuance.
“People are dangerous! You’re a naive little squid out of your depths.”
Ceph curled in her arms. Didn’t honor the insult with a response.
Iliokai slowed her circling, aware that she had upset her friend. “I’m sorry,” Iliokai said, and put her conviction in the water. “I was scared. I was … terrified? You don’t know them. He could’ve snared you. I could’ve lost you.”
It was hard to tell if Ceph was listening. She kept her arms curled close and still.
“Are you okay? Do you need more pressure?”
I’m fine, Ceph rippled the colors dismissively along her back. I was communicating with him, Seadog. Iliokai winced. Do you know what that’s like? To effortlessly understand an alien mind? It was a scientific breakthrough! Ceph’s colors dulled as she mulled over something else: there was more to the experience than she could express in the purely scientific language of her kind. Her nine minds resisted an emotional interpretation, trying instead to organize and reorder the sensations into something explicable. Understandable. She wouldn’t allow anyone to accuse her of octopomorphizing. How could she admit she felt a connection with a terrestrial life-form? That made her sound like some kind of mystical, one-with-everything coral reef. And she knew how things went for coral reefs …
“Do you know how many right whales and sea turtles I’ve had to save from ghost nets? And how many of those I couldn’t?” Iliokai orbited Ceph, above and below, in a distressed gyre. “How many calves get disoriented by transport ship traffic and lose their way? It’s senseless, Ceph, this cruel neglect.” She stopped to meet Ceph’s eyes. “You don’t know. You’ve been down in your cozy hidey-hole.”
Why do you think I ascended?! Ceph roiled reds and purples, muscles rigid. I came to find out! I know we’re in danger now!
“Now …” Iliokai snorted. “Lucky you could be so oblivious of what’s been happening in the entire ocean. Doesn’t concern you as long as our dead bodies drift down as snow for your convenience. Shame that our corpses are now tainted with microplastics. Bummer for you and your sisters.”
Ceph was pulsing now, billowing. It’s no use talking to you. Her chromatophores contracted and expanded fast. I’ve discovered a way to communicate directly with those from Above. Once I share my findings with the Council Deep, we’ll devise a solution to keep the currents flowing.
“Ceph, wait.” Iliokai had no trouble discerning the furious violets and reds, but she saw the blooms of hurt blue too. “You heard the coral. We need to find The Mother.” Iliokai’s crude chromatophore was blotchy with distress — grey patterns of wait spotted her brown sealskin. “Please wait. I need to get some air and then we can talk about this.”
It’s fine, Iliokai. Ceph signaled again with that same dismissive ripple. You can go back to singing your silly songs. Ceph puffed herself large in preparation for her descent. The Council Deep will take care of this. You’ll be far out of your depth in the trench anyway.
Iliokai followed her, though her need to surface was urgent now. “Ceph, don’t leave like this. Please. Just give me one minute and I’ll —”
Thanks for your help, Iliokai, Ceph patterned with no taste of gratitude. I’ll be sure to tell Zoa all about you. We’ll keep our ear-fringes perked for your songs.
Without further ado, she compressed herself and vanished deep in a jet of ink.