Gudsriki (33 page)

Nel laughed. “More human than Violet.”

“Yeah. It's disorienting.”

They stood and stared at the bodies.

“You don't hate me because I'm a bad copy. You hate me because you thought I'd be colder than her. More mechanical. You hate me because I'm—”

“I don't hate you. I don't hate you, Nel.”

Nel considered it.

“Do you love me?”

“I love Violet. And you're almost her sometimes, and even an echo of 'er is deafening. She was that amazing. I love… I love parts of you”—Vibeke pulled on her own hair—“but not all of 'em are because of her. You confuse me. You're all I've got, and I have no idea what to do with you. Now let's get out of this tomb.”

They left the university and its dead behind and headed southeast toward the coast. The sea was frozen over, so they crossed, walked all the way to the Holmöarna, and at their center found Jäbbäckssundet. In the sound was a massive gateway. Purely symbolic, it had no actual gates nor was it between fences. It was merely a marker for the few people on the surface looking for a way down to the Cetacean realm.

But for a moment as war broke out across the surface, it had been the ideal escape, or so it seemed. There were dozens of corpses littering the water around the gate. A massacre of people trying to get underground. Small, minuscule compared to the university. Vibeke didn't imagine it was the Cetaceans or Christians who did it. It must have been a fight between the people about their place in the queue, or something even more petty.

Humans couldn't even escape without killing each other trying. She felt a disgust for the species, a pitiless anger at the bodies. So many bodies at the university. Still so many here. Children among them. They were lucky they never lived to suffer the worse tortures life had in store for them. Vibs thought that if she had encountered them cowering alive on the same spot she'd have killed them herself to stop the pain.

They waded out into the water. Just under the surface, they saw guide lights. The Cetaceans still had electricity. But as she approached she saw it wasn't electric at all. The lamps were something alive, akin to bioluminescent jellyfish.

Vibs expected everything to be lit in blue and was surprised at the sinister reds and yellows that crept up from the gnarled lampposts. Suddenly the ground shook. The water roiled. The real entry gates surfaced, also far from what Vibs had expected. Unlike the smooth and sleek gates from above the surface, their architecture was jagged and brutalist, with visible bolts and patched bronze paneling. Still, there was form to it, at least as much as a saw blade or crab shell.

When they came to the doors, she could see wooden components too. She'd never seen wood carved so skillfully, not outside a museum. The doors were carved with tentacles, and with words:
Ojasta allikkoon
. Neither spoke Suomi, so they had no clue what they were getting into. They pushed the doors open and walked into the gate.

There were no humans or Cetaceans inside. The air stank terribly of mildew and salt. An old wooden portal on the ceiling opened to reveal the nozzle of a primitive scanning device, which looked their way and clicked. Out of water the walls seemed to shrivel and shrink, as if offended by having to be exposed to alien air on the newcomers' account. More portals on the walls adjusted their fittings and exposed speakers.

“
Määränpää
?” said a brittle, wavering voice.

“Uh, do you speak English?” asked Vibeke.

“Destination?”

“Nearest Cetacean village.”

“Pohjanlahti Kylä.”

“Yeah, there.”

“Business or pleasure?”

“Business.”

“The nature of your business?”

“Private.”

“Insufficient.”

“We're looking to start a trading—”

“You are lying.”

“We're looking for the Valkohai to raise an army to break into a secret base with the power to flood the world and torment the jerk who lives there.”

“Your first lie was better. Go home, humans.”

“We need to get in, damn you, open the gate!”

“You didn't even say please. You wouldn't last an hour among us.”

“You'll be dead in an hour if you don't open the damn gate,” Vibs threatened.

“How utterly human.”

The speakers returned to their portals and water began to flood in from the grates at their feet, the gate already sinking. The door opened, but Vibs put up her masks and didn't leave.

“Do you have gills?”

“No,” said Vibeke.

“Then you'll want to leave the gate.”

Vibeke hesitated.

“I'm not human,” said Nel.

“Praise Poseidon.” The gate stopped sinking. “What do you want?”

“For my companion and I to be allowed past the gates.”

“Dear pollywog, why?”

“We have important business with the Valkohai, as she said.”

“There is no such navy.”

“My colleague will need to see that for herself.”

“Give me one good reason I should let her.”

“She will not leave you alone until you do.”

There was a pause.

“I really don't understand humans.”

“Neither do I.”

After another pause the outer door closed. Grates on the floor opened and the water emptied. They sank down into another chamber.

The speakers cleared their throats and spoke. “I'm letting you in, but so help you, be polite to whosoever you meet below. You are most disagreeable monsters, and there are few of us so forgiving as I.”

The inner doors opened and revealed another gate. The gate was as ornate as it was offensive to human eyes. Lit in the harshest yellows and reds, it stretched out along the floor of the chamber bed like a vast metal sphincter, as if to suggest they were headed into the bowels of the earth more literally than was palatable.

The oceanic anus puckered and opened to disgorge a small ferry, a sub that floated up to them and rested on the floor. Its hood opened to reveal one seat. Nel waited for Vibs to step in then did her best to pile in on top of her. She could only manage by flattening her torso beyond what human ribs would have allowed. The hood closed. Vibs cursed the Cetaceans.

“Veikko was right, we should exterminate these assholes! For the love of—”

The speakers in the boat unfolded and clicked on.

“Silence your pet, pollywog, or we flood the ferry. Her human idiocy will not be tolerated for the trip to Pohjanlahti Kylä.”

“Silence, pet,” demanded Nel.

Vibs squinted at her with a sly annoyance and sealed her lips. The boat lifted off the floor and headed into the gate, which closed behind them, sending a cold shockwave of sound through the black unlit water, leaving them blind and deaf to anything but the trilling of the ferry motors. Vibs grew seasick fast as they headed down, straight down and out to the Cetacean world beyond.

 

 

“W
HAT
NEWS
of the Ellines?”

“All wiped out, same as Vladivostok. Udachnaya's safe, all sixteen of 'em.”

“Forget Udachnaya, we found Violet and Vibeke.”

“You did? Where?”

“We picked them up in UmeÃ¥, at the Cetacean gate.”

“And they went under?”

“With some difficulty, but yes, they're in.”

“We should have killed them as soon as they showed up.”

“It was just Kalashnikov's Tikari that saw them.”

“Yeah, didn't want to lose it when we knew where they were going.”

“Why would they be heading to the fish?”

“Why would they betray us in the first place, why would they start a war? That team is evil incarnate.”

“But why Cetaceans? I think they may be done topside. They may not come back.”

“Into hiding? It's possible. They fucked up the world enough. Now they're gone.”

“We can't follow them there. The fish won't allow weapons. They won't allow our suits. These are probably the last Thaco suits still working.”

“They had suits, jury-rigged, but they must have been to Valhalla.”

“The Ares? No wonder they're working with the fish. They must have sold them the ravine!”

“So we'd be going to a region they control, or at best where they're honored guests. And we'd have to give up arms to get in.”

“If we follow them in, we lose everything.”

“We lose tools. Did Alf teach us to rely on tools?”

“We follow them. We track them. We kill them.”

“You guys go in the normal way, someone should have suits and some arms down there. We'll sneak in the hard way.”

“We follow, you smuggle, very good.”

“Works for me.”

Valhalla's remains grew animate and headed to a Cetacean gateway on the eastern coast.

 

 

W
HEN
LIGHT
returned Vibeke was on the verge of throwing up. It was more red and yellow, not even blending orange but bands of either making the jagged metal boat flicker. With the robot pleasantly squished against her Vibs could barely see the suburbs of Pohjanlahti. There were small buildings like bolted up tin cans, ugly spires like the shells of shrimp and limbs of crabs, all connected by thin wooden lines. Everything was corrugated against the pressure of water or open to the sea. She couldn't see any actual Cetaceans amid the structures.

As they went on, there were more buildings and boats. And ships, subs so vast they just couldn't be called boats any longer. The huge ships sprawled out through the sea, bigger than most of the buildings and decorated in sculptural designs. Designed to travel fast through the sea but all jagged and alien. There was nothing sleek or smooth, only harsh angles and sharp edges, and barnacles like the tumors she had seen growing on faces across the surface. They lent the architecture an illusion of disease.

Then they came to the village. It was all one building, not a huge arcology but something like Ukiyo if it had sunk. The structure was coated with spines that extended to docking ships and boats. It was lit harshly to her eyes. The shapes and shadows of the village struck her as hostile to the greatest degree, all reaching toward her, swaying in the water currents as if alive. As they drew closer, she could see they were patched together from rusting metal or carved from wood. There was no water resistant plastic, no sealing fields, none of the technologies Vibeke would have demanded for an undersea dwelling.

After a long time in a holding pattern around their hideous village, the Cetaceans let them dock. One of the spines struck their boat and, with metal claws, latched on to them, and crudely adjusted its chapped, blistered lips to form a seal around them. Water drained and the hatches opened. A powerful smell of fish and mildew overpowered Vibeke. She almost complained but fear of being jettisoned into the water stayed her voice.

“Thank you for sailing the silent seas with us. Enjoy your stay in Pohjanlahti, and watch your mouth, kid, or you're gonna find yourself floating home.”

 

 

“J
UST
FUCKING
let us in!”

“Let's not use that word.”

“Fuck this shit.”

“Oh dear.”

“Listen you sick fish motherfucker, lower this gate or we'll rip out the wall and rip out your one fucking lung.”

“I am sorry, sir, but I simply cannot allow—”

“That fucking does it!”

Kabar began pounding on the wall. In response it began secreting an oily substance.

“What the bloody fuck is this shit!?”

Katyusha was just laughing, Kalashnikov buried his face in his hands, and Katana just sighed.

“I'm going to have to ask you humans to leave the gate now.”

“I will fuck your blowhole!”

“Kabar, just apologize. They always accept apologies.”

“I'll apologize when I fillet this fuck and choke on his bones!”

“Kabar,” she whispered, “do you want to kill Valknut or not?”

Kabar kicked the incoming water.

“I'm sorry!”

“You'll need to calm down as well s—”

“
I am calm!
”

“He's not kidding,” said Katyusha. “This is him calm. You should see him angry.”

“Oh dear me.”

“Please just let us in,” said Kabar, loudly and firmly.

“I'll need some guarantee that your behavior in Pohjanlahti will be more proper than what you've exhibited here.”

“What kind of guarantee do you want?” he asked, eye twitching.

“I'd like you to promise.”

“I promise my behavior will be more polite in the Payalota than it's been here.”

“Pohjanlahti.”

“Poe-Yawn-Law-Tea.”

“Thank you.”

The room went quiet.

“Will our ship be along soon?” he asked.

“Boat. Your boat will be along soon.”

Kabar's blood pressure threatened an aneurysm.

 

 

V
IBEKE
AND
Nel walked down the gangplank, an enclosed, dripping ramp made of wood and clear kelp, barely protected from the water outside. It led to a small booth just within the village walls marked
Tulli
, where they met a sturdy wooden and metal door, and more portal speakers. They greeted the two with a moaning, shrieking sound.

“We're humans.”

“
Antakaa aseenne ja vaatteenne, kiitos
.”

“English-speaking humans.”

“Weapons and clothing, please.”

“What about them?”

“Remove them and place them in the bin to your left.”

Vibs whispered, “Great, it's a nudist colony,” then responded, “We need clothing for warmth.”

“Proper clothing will be provided, as will a receipt for your… killing devices.”