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Ixxy listened slack-jawed as Hydn explained what Rat Missiles were. An abomination of the Machine-folk, long thought to be condemned to the annals of history. An awful union of creature and machine, run by cogs and gears, powered by who knew what and programmed to kill anything in its path, until it reached its target. Vicious, heartless, killing machines.
“Some say they’re unstoppable,” Hydn sculled with his hands in the water, trying to keep position as the current slowly dragged them towards the jumble of flotsam and junk that demarked the end of the mightiest river in the Dark.
“But what’s the point of them? If they’re so indiscriminate, wouldn’t they kill friends as well as enemies?”
“I think they were always a desperate measure, but I think some had enough mind left to be programmed with a person’s scent, so they went and killed them first.”
“And after that?”
“They mostly go mad and kill anything.”
“It still has some mind left? The poor thing.”
“Yeah. There isn’t an aspect of these things that isn’t horrific. Now paddle, we don’t want to come nose to nose with it before we’ve got a plan.”
“I am paddling,” said Ixxy, sploshing louder to make the point, “but I think the current’s got us.”
“Then we’d better think quick.”
“Can we capture it? Like in the bag?”
“I guess,” Hydn checked at his belt with one hand and found the reassuring shape of his gadget. It had a pretty sharp blade in it too.
The cavern was resonating with the thrumming churn of the water.
“Hey wait,” said Hydn, “I think I’ve got—”
“Hydn? Hydn! Shreds. Hydn!” He was gone. Ixxy held the plank and put her face under the water. Having her head under water made her shudder. Some pirate she made. Where was he? She only had hearing and underwater at that. She flicked her head, this way and that. There: bubbles, where the current was strongest. She heard a gargled yell. She kicked like all the hells toward the noise, towing the plank with her. The turmoil got louder and more desperate; she could hear metallic gnashing, and now she was closer, she could smell blood and oil. She reached up for the bag but found the pole. She grabbed it and swam towards the fracas. She jammed the pole at where the noise was loudest and felt Hydn grab her arm. She let him and kicked upward. As she broke the surface and gasped, she grabbed his hand and pulled up. Hydn broke the surface too, but his breathing was ragged. The plank and all of them had been dragged to the terminator of rubbish, where the water fell to gods knew where. She held the pole in one hand and Hydn in the other.
“Help—” The crashing of metal teeth in the water, then his hand was pulled from hers. She reached for him, but just found his belt and the gadget attached to it. She grabbed it and swam towards them. There was nowhere farther to go. The current was being dragged through some kind of metal wire lattice. Plastic flailed like weeds everywhere. Hydn and the Rat-thing rolled against the underwater fence. She stabbed the pole end at them hoping she’d hit the beast. There was so much blood. Then with a sharp whack, the thing had bitten on, sheared through the end of the pole and gone again. Hydn bumped her in the water. She grabbed for him. The thing was rounding for another attack. The water still pulled at her and then she felt the fence at her back. She found Hydn’s hand, his fingers curled reflexively through her own. She guided his hand to the fence and he curled his fingers weakly around the mesh instead. At least he wouldn’t drift off. She held out the pole braced against the mesh, but she couldn’t aim it, she still had Hydn’s belt in her other hand, but maybe—
The thing was on her again, but it found the pole first. She jammed it, ragged end first, into the thingʼs mouth and then shoved. That seemed to keep it occupied for a click at least. She pulled along the belt and grabbed the gadget while the Rat-thing was reducing the pole to splinters. She pulled at it and twisted: there. The tiny metal jaws of the gadget sprang open. The Rat-thing was thrashing in the water trying to free itself of the pole. There might just be time. Snip. Snip. Snip. She shoved her head and Hydn’s above the water for a breath, then she sensed the trail on the surface.
“Come on you! Come to Ixxy!”
The thing propelled itself, swishing what was left of its hindquarters and tail as a propeller, grinding of gears and that mouth. It breached the surface with a shriek and a lash of spray. Every surface Ixxy could Air-sense was sharp. “Come ON!” It came. She jinked at the last moment and the thingʼs head connected with the fence. She pushed. It realised, with the current, it couldn’t pull itself back through the opening and thrashed all the more. She pushed again. Its front half hung over the watery abyss. She was pushed against it as the current dragged everything that would go through the hole she’d created. Its back claws scrabbled, she felt them sharp on her arm. “Out. You. Go!” One last shove and it was tumbling, falling over the edge, following the water, down, down, to wherever it went. She heard it’s metal teeth grinding into the distance, then even that was swallowed by the churning of the water.
“Captain?” Hydn’s voice was weak.
Ixxy felt for him, he was slick with blood even in the water, “No, it’s me you idiot!” The limb that was nearest seemed to be the source of all the blood. There was no foot. She couldn’t feel one thing from another in the flailing plastic at the water’s edge. “Hold this tight!” she pressed the gadget into his hand. She grabbed for her own knife and started slashing away at the plastic. Enough of it tore into strips for her to tie a tight ligature around Hydn’s leg. The plank, caught in the churn too, bumped against her. Now she found the bag. She sighed and tied it around the end of Hydn’s stump. He hissed and tensed. “Sorry,” she said.
“S’okay...”
“Grab a hold here, you,” she put his hand on the plank. “We’re going back.”