“Floyd.” She whispered. His ear turned toward her. “You’re out of time.”
“Not yet.” He said. “We have to stall them.”
So he WAS aware. Good. It wasn’t as comfortable a realization once the fish inside the bubble was pointing something at them. Two more fish came from two more entrances to the hub. Biology still wasn’t her strong point, but they looked like Groupers. That was scary enough without what she assumed was a weapon.
No wonder the tunnels were so big.
Floyd seemed calm enough, sandwiched between two of these 700 pound monsters. So Valerie did her best to remain calm, though her heart thundered in her chest. All she could hear was the pounding of her ears’ blood vessels.
They were led to another, larger chamber. There were Marlin, who appeared to be “standing” as guards. They were certainly scary enough with their pointed swords. They were as scary as any shark, and, arguably, just as large. Standing on their tail fins, they were more than twice Floyd’s height.
For all their preaching about sea-life equality, there weren’t any mammals down here, except for Valerie and Floyd. Narwhals would have been just as scary down here. As much as the spearfish who now glared down at them. Down at Floyd. They seemed to install themselves in the walls, waiting for the command to rush them. Valerie hadn’t realized they could be so… huge. All of these fish seemed to be the kind that could hold their own. There were probably tuna down here, too, but Valerie didn’t know how to identify them.
“The security footage was hilarious!” Came the voice from the video. “I may archive it as a record of land dwellers once this is all done.”
The barracuda was still, except for his tail. The whole not-blinking thing only helped to increase the tension. At least, Valerie thought this was the one from the video. She wouldn’t have said it aloud, but they really did look the same.
“Well, you’ve certainly changed the landscape.” Valerie spoke with more authority than she felt. “Why is everyone in their own bubble? You’re this far down, having it underwater isn’t unreasonable.”
“I’ll be asking the questions, thank you.”
“I’m Valerie, this is Floyd.” She folded her hands and leaned forward, as if to prompt him to introduce himself. She couldn’t tell any kind of expression on his face, but she was hoping he was off balance enough to forget what questions he wanted to ask. It was probably risky to taunt him in front of his court, but if there was ever a time for desperate risks, it was now.
“Who sent you?” He stared at them, but it probably wasn’t as scary as he had hoped. “I, Emperor the Great, demand to know!”
“Which question do we answer first?” Floyd turned his attention to Valerie. The question, the fact that he speaks in almost third person, or if his name actually is Emperor the Great?”
“With a name like Emperor the Great, what do your friends call you? Emp…ty?” Valerie tried to gauge how the crowd was reacting out of her peripheral vision. These fish were hard to read.
“Emperor the Great demands to know! Who sent you?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Floyd tossed his head. “We’re from the government.”
Valerie glanced down at her t-shirt and jeans. She supposed she could be undercover. Like Floyd.
“Which government?” Emperor the Great grew still.
“The one that knows how you’re using the Smart Water.”
At Floyd’s statement, the court began to whisper. Emperor the Great snapped his tail and made a crack like a whip.
“We are using it just as it was originally intended.”
“For planetary genocide?” Valerie sneered. “Have you even heard of symbiosis?”
“Don’t SPEAK to me about genocide!” Emperor the Great made a visible effort to calm himself. “Your kind has wiped many a species out of the ocean. Others are endangered. We are using the Smart Water as it’s creators intended. To purify the water! We just took it one step further. We will purify this world!”
“Except Valerie here is right.” Floyd twitched his muscles. “You need the land as much as the land needs the ocean. You kill all life on land, you’ll be killing yourselves. You may have cleaned up the oceans, but the rain will eventually bring most of it back here. It could be handy to have the humans gather up all their trash and repurpose it.”
“Humans!” Emperor the Great barked a laugh. “Ha! The ones who breed our kind in small tanks that have us breathing our own waste?”
“Not your kind, though.” Valerie pointed out. “Average people don’t keep Barracuda or Grouper or Marlin in a tank. Even an aquarium would think twice. So why does it matter to you, when you’ve got everybody else up in the atmosphere?”
Emperor the Great looked straight at her. Well, as straight as he could with eyes on either side of his face. It was an unsettling silence that descended on the chamber. He moved closer to her, and lowered his voice.
“I. Don’t. Care.”
He could slash her throat with those fangs. He could order his Marlin guard to impale her. And still, she insisted on remaining flippant. She looked up at Floyd, opened her mouth and let out a loud sigh.
“I think he’s a radical.”
“Yes.” Floyd shifted forward, ready to defend Valerie. “But not smart enough to have built all this, or engineered their own Smart Water, or even placed an order for Smart Water.”
He waited to let the statement sink in.
“You don’t even have enough knowledge to program these bubbles that let you move in a dry environment.”
“This Emperor won’t last long, then.” Valerie crossed her arms and leaned back a bit. “What are we even doing here?”
That riled up Emperor the Great enough to react impulsively.
“I am creating an empire! A dynasty that strides the stars! We will forge a new world free of humanity’s contamination. It will last forever. And, at my command, my partners will wipe out anyone who tries to stop me!”
“You’re not bringing them, are you?” Floyd twitched his tail. The sound wasn’t as impressive as Emperor the Great’s, but it was enough to make Valerie wonder if Floyd had a temper. “All those creatures you’re holding in the sky, they’re not coming with you. They will eventually die.”
“As if you’re better than them?” Valerie scoffed. “You trash the planet and then look for another one? You’re more like humans than you’ll ever admit.”
Valerie was no expert on psychos, but she couldn’t seem to do anything but antagonize this fish.
“Perhaps I’ll let the partners deal with you.” Emperor the Great’s voice was a low growl.
“Perhaps that’s best, since they’re clearly the ones with more experience.” Floyd kicked the Emperor’s bubble, and the surface tension rippled out from the impact. It managed to drive the bubble back a few inches.
“What do his partners even get out of it?” Valerie addressed her question to Floyd, ignoring the emperor.
“Since they’re harvesting so much ‘pure’ water, they might be in the market for more raw material.”
The chamber shuddered. A dull roar started to invade their conversation. Floyd glanced at Valerie, who winked back.
