Lost Sea

By Eloise Hamann

A society of human-like beings called tetrapeds dwell under the ocean floor in a dystopian but sophisticated society with a caste system. Claiming to know what’s good for the country of Pelagia, the government is an alliance of corporations who tolerate no dissent. When a group of citizens concerned about their polluted environment is deemed treasonous, they are targeted for elimination. Landley, a member of the lower caste is among the targeted after her cavemate is murdered. Her heartthrob detective discovers the plan and informs the professor who leads the group. They discover and escape to a legendary Lost Sea where the story begins.
The reader will be kept in suspense as the group struggles with the challenges of surviving in a primitive environment, living in fear of the likely discovery of their location, dissent among their ranks, and an encounter with an existing advanced society in the Lost Sea, which may or may not be accommodating to them. Their allies who remained in Pelagia risk their lives by delivering supplies and keeping their ears tuned to hints that the new CEO might decide to drill to search for the Lost Sea. The pristine nature of the environment in which the colonists live fails to compensate for the constant tension about their future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eloise Hamann
• Release date: Apr 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463123621

Eloise Hamann

Eloise Hamann loves to imagine and longs to live in a world filled with justice and fun puzzles. Her passion for puzzles led to becoming a mathematician. Her passion for imagining and justice led her to become a writer and political activist after retiring from San Jose State University. As an academic, she wrote professional articles, contributed to newsletters, drafted memos on behalf of better education and university policies. As a political activist, she penned flyers and brochures advocating for causes.

Book preview

This is a continuing story of a society of sentient beings, tetrapeds, who live under the seafloor in the country of Pelagia. The major differences between tetrapeds and humans are gills instead of lungs, fins on their forearms and calves, webbed feet, and half-webbed hands. They wear no clothes, have internal genitalia, and have no hair. From a distance they appear like humans in white body suits.

A coalition of corporations—the Alliance—governs Pelagia. Landley, a member of the lower caste, is among those who have escaped to the Lost Sea underneath the floor of their country. Her troubles began with the murder of her cavemate and her mistaken listing as a member of PBR—Perkone for a Better Realm. When the chair of the Alliance board investigated PBR, he deemed the group treasonous. The discovery of a plot to kill PBR members devastated Landley’s heartthrob detective, Lawson. He informed the group’s leader, Dr. Thurgood 411. This biology professor pursued his long-held dream to find the legendary Lost Sea as a place to hide.

Lawson, Thurgood, and other tetrapeds teamed up. With great effort and good fortune, they successfully escaped to the Lost Sea, where our story begins.

For the reader’s convenience, the ‘Tetraped Speak’ section in the back defines Pelagian words. A section on little-known facts about the deep ocean and a list of characters are also provided.

Chapter One

Landley fanned her arm fins to strengthen her breaststrokes, but her arms and legs refused to move. Murky aqua hid Lawson in the distance. He was in danger, and she couldn’t get to him. His garbled cries made her more desperate. Finally, she surged forward, but she might as well have been treading in place. The distance between her and Lawson remained constant no matter how fast she swam.

When something grabbed and shook her, she screamed until her gills felt ready to burst.

Landley, Landley, Lawson said. Wake up.

The spin of her swirling brain cells slowly subsided, and she found herself in Lawson’s arms. She stroked his high forehead. You’re safe.

You had a shiverdream, Lawson said.

It was awful. Like the ones after Shell was murdered. This time you were in trouble, and I couldn’t get to you.

Lawson held her tight until she calmed down. OK now? He held her appealing plump-cheeked face between his hands. Get some sleep.

Lawson rolled over, and she heard him slow his intake of aqua. She sat up in their small hollow, not much more than a cellar, and waited for her nerves to settle. When she finally succumbed, she slept, tossing and turning in her bed of sand. Finally falling asleep shortly before time for their ork meal, Lawson woke her again.

Hey, sweet cheeks, time to get up if you want to see me off.

After swiping sand from her skin, Landley grasped Lawson’s arm. I don’t want you to go.

He frowned. What’s the problem?

A bad, bad feeling about it. She swallowed and locked eyes with him.

That shiverdream. Lawson grimaced.

I think it’s a warning. She studied his understanding face, grateful he didn’t dismiss her feelings with a flick of a fin.

Look, we’ve been out twice without incident. Our worst danger is not being able to see where we’re going if a swarm of mudfish have stirred up the silt.

Then I want to go with you.

He said nothing and took her hand. They ducked under the opening that served as a door. Work assignments are already set up. Perkone would think Thurgood was playing favorites.

Yes, but kems weren’t chosen because we thought the expeditions might be dangerous. Now you say they’re not.

But it’s too late. Besides . . . Lawson stopped.

It still might be dangerous, Landley said, finishing his thought.

No, he said and then added quickly, you have to feed Inkspot.

Landley knew Lawson wasn’t lying so much as teasing. She could always read his thoughtful face.

He stopped and faced her. There are six of us, we have dart guns and spears, the sharks ignore us, and we never go farther than the length of the rope. His hands waved with each point he made.

Landley miserably conceded with a shrug before they got to the gathering room.

We’ll be fine. Lawson put his arm around her shoulder.

***

Landley convinced herself she had been overreacting, but after Lawson’s party did not return when expected, bile soured in her throat. That eeken, she had the same shiverdream and woke early with no Lawson beside her.

While slowly breaststroking up and down the main tunnel between the seamount’s gaping, maw-shaped entrance and the gathering room, she met Thurgood.

Good ork, my dear, going to eat? Thurgood asked with concerned eyes probing above his sagging cheeks. Ydith is eating in our room as usual.

No. I’m avoiding Zobina. She’ll see how worried I am, and she doesn’t need to be reminded that baby Hope might grow up without a father.

Thurgood stood silent for several tiks, then put his hand on her shoulder. Lawson and Dover are extremely competent and well armed. We need to trust they can handle whatever comes their way.

His tone assured her more than his words. I know, and I’m not blaming you. I understand the need for marking our territory.

They stood reflecting on what they’d been through. Landley sighed. I was afraid it would be boring down here. Now boring sounds more welcome than the life of an upper. No worrying.

I thought I’d miss my biology research, but I’m too busy. Too much responsibility. He spread his arms as if holding all hundred escapees.

Landley smiled wanly and said, I think I will join you. Besides, I need to feed Inkspot or Lawson will never forgive me. I hope he never has to choose between me and his darling pet squid.

Thurgood’s upper cheeks closed in on his kind, wise eyes. You know, there are as many good reasons for Lawson and Dover’s party to be late as . . . as unfortunate ones.

My momo always said biting fingernails could lose fingertips, but when ‘she’ worried, it kept the bad thing from happening. She’d tsk-tsk away my claim she didn’t follow her own advice. Having said this, for the first time in her life, this quirk amused rather than annoyed her.

Every time Landley entered the huge cavern, its magnificence struck her, especially in comparison to the narrow tunnels that wandered through the seamount and the small hollows they used for bedrooms. The silly twins had estimated the size by using their bodies to measure the dimensions. They were fully grown, so they were around a tetrod tall. Not even the auditorium at Volcano City University could be as high as fifty tetrods. Their floor radii, about the same. The variation of the pastel colors in the rock could have been designed by an abstract artist. She wondered about the nature of the rock’s minerals since every other wall in the seamount varied between gray and black.

They joined Zobina holding Hope, whose blue color Landley found attractive. Soiled spots stood out on everyone else’s white skin. The child flapped her little finned arms with tiny curled fingers, making little waves in front of her round, dimpled face. She looked like her mother with her large eyes and small, flat nose.

Landley sat on one of the rocks they’d laboriously dragged in, chosen to be big enough to sit on and small enough to rearrange for meetings and meals. The uneven floor itself created comfy spots. She’s adorable, Landley said, mugging in her little face. Having hidden with Zobina and Dover before the escape, she considered herself Hope’s aunt.

Thanks. She’s easy now, but soon she’ll be taking her first strokes, and it’ll be ashes to keep an eye on her. If Zobina worried about Dover, it didn’t show on her pleasant, tiny-nosed face.

There weren’t many children in the colony. Some PBR parents considered a primitive environment riskier than facing a new CEO who might leave them alone. The small number of children made it easier to settle in but problematic if the colony was to maintain viability.

In Pelagia, Landley thought having children was far off in the future, and in the Lost Sea, she needed a well-established, stable society before considering it. The colony did not have a bonding procedure, but she considered herself bonded to Lawson. For now, she could relish bouncing Hope on her lap and watching awareness of her little world grow by the dek. She was the colony’s baby. Even the twins pleaded to hold her.

This ork, Hope’s charm failed to distract her. Landley picked at a few mussels and gazed at her surroundings. The gathering room was the one place in the seamount where everyone could meet and establish community. Given the old metal food containers left behind, she assumed the ancient tetrapeds used the room for the same purpose. She gathered her mussel shells, disposed of them in a kelpine bag in the corner, and checked her assignment from the list posted near the door: gathering mussels. Yanking them from the rocks wouldn’t occupy her brain, and worrying drained her.

She ached for an infothon to call Lawson. The lack of ability to communicate remotely was a major dis-advantage of living in the Lost Sea, one all the colonists sorely felt. They also complained—due to habit rather than need—about the inability to tell time. Down here, sleepiness and hunger pangs served as clocks.

She shook her head and forced herself to consider the health benefits of the purity of the aqua.

Here, it was the fear of sharks and other predator fish rather than polluted aqua that kept Landley inside more than she liked and now spiked her fear over Lawson’s welfare.

Chapter Two

The dek Lawson had set out, he knew his crew well. His initial apprehension over Thurgood’s approval of Phib joining the venture had subsided. He still found Phib’s comments crazy unpredictable, and his thin body and face even looked squirmy, but the non-grown-up fell in with the rest of the koms despite his off-the-rocks remarks. Thank Coel Thurgood’s ex-drilling contractor, Dover, was a different sort, one with practical skills as well as a mind-set of uncommon caution. His very face radiated competence. Three other members, who had exhibited dependability, provided a crew of six koms. Safety in numbers, Lawson told himself, thinking of Landley’s eerie shiverdream.

I’m hungry, Haggus growled.

Lawson silently groaned. They hadn’t been swim-walking long. They’d planted a meager three marker stakes with many more to go. Everyone else OK with stopping to eat? It paid to give in to Haggus’s demands whenever it didn’t matter; he would be less of a pain in the ass. The never-satisfied guy’s lined face gave him an angry, haggard look, making it easy to remember his name. Lawson understood Thurgood had chosen him for his mechanical ability. He was not a member of PBR but in other trouble with the Alliance.

It depends on the menu, Phib said in the tone of an upper in a fancy restaurant.

Fresh crab and fresh crab, Jye quipped while Zom nodded.

They slept on the other side of the bed in Phib’s lingo and had joined the colony because they were concerned about statements by church leaders and the Alliance regarding their rights. Opposites evidently attracted in their case. Jye reminded Lawson of a waving tall tubeworm—slight, lively, and outgoing with curious wide eyes—in comparison with Zom’s robust body, reticence, and eyes masking a busy brain. All Lawson cared about was how well they could contribute to his crew.

I see a ring of boulders a few tetrods ahead. Think you can go that far? Dover said mockingly.

I suppose, but these damned backpacks are heavy with all those stakes, Haggus replied. I’m strong, but I’m used to wearing a light waistpack.

Jye rolled his eyes at Zom behind Haggus’s back.

Once they were comfortable sitting against the boulders, Lawson addressed the group. Just want to remind you to pay attention to your surroundings and keep track of any differences in amount and types of fish we’ve seen, height of the overhead, whatever. Anything so far?

What’s the point of all this? Haggus asked ‘again.’

Lawson scratched his brain for a way to explain the importance that would get through to the guy. He had tried ‘wanting to know your new territory for its own sake’ and used the example of marking the labyrinth in their seamount for ease of getting around. You like to eat, don’t you? There’s plenty of fish around the seamount todek, but who knows about morrow dek.

To be honest, Dover said with his arms folded across his chest, I don’t think we’re consuming the easy catches at a sustainable rate.

You’ve told me that over and over, Haggus said.

Then stop asking, Jye said, shaking his head. Criminy!

Fearing another argument, Lawson said, Let’s get going. The sooner we get to the end of the rope, the sooner we can start back.

Spoken like a true genius, Phib said with a smirk.

Lawson struggled to pay attention to his surroundings as he ruminated over Haggus’s lack of curiosity. He considered the common desire for knowing one’s world to be what distinguished tetras from fish. It’s what prompted him to lead these expeditions.

The first two trips had contained few surprises: a large boulder here and there on the mildly undulating muddy or sandy bottom; swarms of small fish near oases of rocky, musseled hillocks in which a few octopuses, squid, skates, white crabs, and unknowns hid. They went no farther than their rope would extend, inserting stiff kelpine stakes in the hillocks and near boulders. They scratched two digits on these temporary markers: one for the path number and one to indicate order down the path.

You’re lost in your thoughts, Dover said, coming up alongside Lawson. They began breaststroking low over an area of sharp rocks.

Just imagining discovering another seamount. Maybe not his current thought but his dream. Do you think charting in eight directions is enough?

Yeah, for now. Later we can do more centered at the seamount. That makes more sense anyway. Why did Thurgood want the center to be under the passage to Pelagia?

He didn’t say. Lawson furrowed his brow. He usually thinks things through. Maybe he’s curious about what the Alliance will find if they send their goons to look for us.

Dover stopped—and Lawson with him. You know, if we could find another tunneled seamount, we’d be swimming easy. We could alternate living quarters and give fish populations time to recoup.

I know, Lawson said.

Phib caught up to them. I just saw one of those ugly goblin sharks off in the distance. His eyes twinkled with maliciousness, and he couldn’t hide a smirk.

Why don’t you go find him and offer him a bite? Dover said.

Not something to joke about, Phib, Lawson said.

I know, but I’m bored.

Lawson could have slapped his petulant face.

Just don’t poke at one or I’ll use my spear on ‘you,’ Dover said. I’ve seen one down here. It left me alone, thank Coel. Easier for them to catch smaller prey.

After nearly exhausting the length of the rope, there was a change in the aquasphere Lawson couldn’t explain. It felt different, as if the water were softer and warmer. He also felt himself hyperaware of his surroundings, seeing more details in the rock formations and seeing farther into the landscape ahead, almost as if he were on drugs.

Look at that? Dover exclaimed in the middle of Lawson’s quandary. Everyone turned their eyes in the direction he pointed but claimed to see nothing.

Straining, Lawson could barely make out the outline of a potential seamount. It seemed so far away, he was surprised he could see anything. It must have been huge. Distance lanterns and bioluminescing wouldn’t help from this distance. He appreciated that Dover had superior eyesight, probably from having grown up in Dipsea, a tiny town with poor lighting.

It’s to the right of our intended path, Dover said, pointing, and it could be the answer to our prayers. Hold up. We need to think. There’s not much rope left.

What difference does it make that it’s to the right of where we were going? Phib asked. We can still follow the rope back.

Phib was right, so Lawson didn’t know why heading that way made him uneasy.

But we don’t have enough rope to make it even halfway, so what’s the point? Dover asked. We can check it out when Alvin and Monk deliver more rope.

Why not see what we can see now? Let’s take a vote. Phib turned a silly, appealing face to the rest of the company. Only Dover and Lawson voted to return.

Within ten myks, they reached the end of the rope. Phib grabbed the end and gave it a yank, claiming there was no doubt some slack. Indeed there was. The rope pulled completely free. Phib jumped back and began blubbering. I didn’t pull it that hard. You must not have secured it well.

Wrong, Lawson said. But I don’t think you pulled it loose. Something must have gotten to it. The shark you saw might have thought it looked like a tasty long sea cucumber.

So now what? asked Jye while Zom pursed his lips.

We follow the rope back as best we can, Lawson said.

Spread out so that we have a better chance of one of us seeing the distance lantern we left at our last stake, Dover said, spreading his arms.

We’ll get back eventually and fish along the way, Lawson said, containing his discomfort. Landley’s warning crept into his thoughts.

Yeah, we can’t stay lost forever, Phib chimed.

Lawson remembered the part of his police training that refuted that idea but said nothing.

Chapter Three

Landley woke early and joined Zobina and Krace, sitting together in the gathering room. Hope asleep on her back, Zobina was laughing, making Landley smile for no other reason.

Krace could make anyone laugh. She had such positive energy, perkone’s spirits lifted in her company. They laughed at her delightful quips in large part because of her facial expressions. Her pliable face could shape itself to look old, young, haughty, downtrodden, whatever she wanted—perfect for acting, but this environment had no jobs for drama majors.

Good ork, Landley said. What’s so funny?

Krace was telling me about the first time you met—those orientation films at Linophryne, Zobina said. She claimed if she had one koura to live, she’d watch one of those movies because it would seem like eternity.

What I remember her saying is she’d rather be dead than so tortured. I was naïve. I just thought the films were boring and over a volcano. That swelling music . . . She rolled her eyes and remembered how betrayed she’d felt when she learned the truth about her job. Forcing us to watch such drivel was just one example of how the Alliance tried to control us. After Linophryne’s trial period, I found out security meant spying for the Alliance. Landley’s bitterness destroyed the mood, and she felt guilty. She just hoped they knew what was really bothering her.

Landley helped herself to the catch of the dek and a scoop of algae. Her favorite mussels were gone. Catching a kem staring at her and Zobina across the room, her mood sank further. She hated being an object of sympathy and suffering all the soothing remarks from everyone. Oh, they must have found something interesting that needed investigation, or They found great fishing and wanted to take advantage, or Don’t worry, the koms are capable. None of their comments had the intended effect. Landley could read the concern on Thurgood’s face, and she appreciated his silence. Krace would merely ask how she was.

As she rose to leave the gathering room—now filled—she overheard someone say, The fish catch doesn’t seem as large as it usually is, with the response That’s because the best fisherkoms are out exploring.

Hey, watch it! one of the fisherkoms called—Lankari, who had been Haggus’s partner in a mechanics shop in Volcano City. I catch as much as anyone. The fish were just someplace else.

Lankari’s strange eyes were so narrow, Landley couldn’t help but think the someplace else was beyond his scope. He reminded her of a snake or an eel, his body was so thin. She heard Haggus call him Lanky once, but when someone else did, the snake almost bit his head off. She didn’t like either mechanic’s attitudes but found Lankari’s more tolerable. Maybe they would have been better off taking chances on prison. It was majorly stupid to cheat an upper.

Everyone in the room got into the conversation. When someone mentioned the exploration for new fishing ground, Landley used the opportunity to suggest a search party.

How are we going to do that? We don’t need more perkone lost, Lankari asked, evidently unaware he’d admitted his belief Lawson’s team was indeed lost.

We go to the entrance and then follow the third rope, Landley said, keeping the sarcasm from her voice by balling up and twisting her fists behind her back.

Everyone was silent pondering the idea, encouraging Landley that no one thought it absurd.

Thurgood spoke first. That will work if they haven’t wandered far from their rope. Let’s wait a bit longer, but we should decide who will go.

I’m going, Landley said, soon followed by Krace and a few others. Zobina’s head turned down, staring at her precious Hope.

Somebody should go to Dipsea and get Chief. He’s Dover’s daddy and baby Hope’s grandpa, one of the few children spit out, enchanting Landley that the tyke wanted to help.

A chorus of ‘too-risky’ billowed from the adults, and Thurgood nodded in agreement. More rope is coming. We’ll find them eventually. It was the ‘eventually’ part that bothered Landley.

Thurgood’s reputation for a wandering mind at VU hadn’t yet followed him to the Lost Sea. It’s unfortunate; nothing truly distinguishing has been uncovered in the first two expeditions. He pressed his forefinger against his chin and stared at the ceiling. We need a chart of the Lost Sea, but charts require definite features. There must be some. I wonder what Kynoka would say. She was my coleader of PBR and a most capable history professor. I—

Yeah, or ‘Lost Sea’ will be a good name for other reasons, Lankari interrupted from the edge of the gathering. No one laughed. Landley patted Zobina’s shoulder.

You know I don’t like the name Lost Sea, Zobina said wistfully. That was fine when we lived in Pelagia and we didn’t know where it was or even if it existed. Now we need a better name.

How about Sea Clear Down? Krace asked with a grin on her face. Everyone groaned. OK, OK, we can think about it.

Murmurs of agreement followed, and perkone began to drift away. Some headed out to fish, others to clean the previous catch. Zobina sat and nursed Hope. Landley with her troubled mind left the room.

***

Check your backpacks for meals, Lawson advised his koms. Now their inability to communicate over a distance rose from an inconvenience to a handicap.

Infothons’ direction-finders worked for a limited distance from the entrance, but since they depended on towers from Pelagia, they had destroyed them. Landley’s old division at Linophryne would have tracked their use. Linophryne’s tentacles could reach everywhere imaginable and did reach wherever the Alliance directed.

Dover’s shouting shook Lawson, deep in his thoughts, to attention. Hey, are you hearing us? You look like your mind has drifted farther than our bodies. We have enough food for one meal is all. We need to gather more.

Lawson shook his head. Sorry, my mind ‘was’ wandering.

Some scout leader you are, Haggus said. Thurgood should have chosen someone else. He was not joking.

Dover scowled while Lawson said nothing. The rope drifted sinusoidally just above the bottom, leaving no doubt it had been severed somewhere and somehow. Feeling the urgency to reach the rope’s new end, the troops saved their last meal for later.

After several kouras, Phib saw the rope, grabbed it, and held it up. His initial pleasure drained from his face. It’s been cut.

The koms crowded around him. Indeed, the thick rope had not a single fray, and whatever or whoever had sliced it had created a cross section that was a perfect circle. The koms stood as still as statues. Not even their gills moved.

What the ashes? Haggus said.

What the ashes is right,