![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
"Squid Attack Squad"
Jul. 8th, 2023 08:28 am"Squid Attack Squad"
4/6-4/7/2023
I.
Few helicopters would have been cleared to fly during such a storm. Even the US Coast Guard would have weighed the risk to a crew against any rescue mission. And for a flight intended for only research purposes, no copter would have launched into the heavy rain and gale force winds over Long Island Sound that night.
But the CORBY was like no craft available to any Human nation or organization. Sleek and sharklike in its contours, the black stealthcraft tore through the downpour as steadily as if it was flying on a calm summer afternoon. No visible lights showed. With its radar alignment systems working, the CORBY was as good as invisible in the darkness as it sped over the northern coastline.
At the combined cyclic/collective stick, the Trom who called himself Frank Mills kept his eyes moving constantly. From the row of small monitors screens showing views from all sides of the CORBY to the luminous windscreen which worked with both light enhancement and ultra-violet projectors to the sonar pulses lancing down into the black waters a thousand feet below, he saw everything he wanted to.
In the co-pilot seat, Demrak Jin shifted her weight irritably. Patience had never been one of her strong points. At first, she seemed to be only a rather short, thin woman with a wide flat face and sullen dark blue eyes. But further scrutiny of the stiff bristly white hair and odd facial bone structure would prove unsettling. In bright sunlight, a close examination would reveal three barely visible lines in a row on either side of her throat. These were gill slits. Demrak Jin was a Geldydra from the realm of Ulgor, a Cousin Race who were amphibious.
"I should be down there!" she abruptly cried, breaking the long silence. "That is MY element. Any monsters of the deep are my natural prey."
Mills responded with his usual bland mildness. "The sensors are probing for miles in every direction and down to a depth of three thousand feet. If any anomalies are detected, that would be the appropriate time for you to take action."
"You just don't have feelings," Jin continued. "A father and his child have been missing for the past few days. Before that, three teenage girls in their sailboat disappeared. This area is notorious for missing people. Only bits of wreckage have been recovered and you don't care."
The Trom turned his head to regard her without visible reaction to her tirade. Mills was a tall athletic man in one of the KDF black field suits. His short black hair and regular unremarkable features were offset by a pair of dark eyes that showed deep awareness and intelligence but no emotion. "I am what I was meant to be, Jin. Nothing will be gained by trying to provoke me."
"Arrrhh! I feel love! Anger! Sorrow! I have a heart. And you... you are like the cold machines you prize so highly!" she shouted right in his face.
"We are both true to our natures," Frank Mills responded in the same even tones he always used. "So far, sensors have detected nothing out of the ordinary. I intend to move closer to the shore and descend to three hundred feet. Under these conditions, we are not likely to be observed."
Folding her arms across her narrow chest, Jin scowled at the banks of pastel green and blue lights which filled the cockpit. Any one of those indicators turning red would have instantly gotten their full attention. After a long heavy silence, she grudgingly said, "You Trom say you value Human life."
"Yes," Mills answered. "We work behind the scenes in secrecy, but our goal is to improve conditions for Humans. We guide researchers to useful new discoveries and we release information conducive to reducing wars and violent crimes."
"You're not doing a very good job at that..." she grumbled.
"Events would have proceeded much more harmfully without our restrained interventions," Mills said. "As bad as history seems, it would have been much worse without the Trom pulling strings behind the scenes."
"So you say. Never mind. I am not like you, Trom. Sitting in a hard seat for six hours and circling the ocean is not what I was meant to be doing. I am a daughter of a warrior Race. Each Gelydra is born at the same time a shark hatches and the spirit of the shark lives in us!"
Instead of commenting, Mills pulled back on the stick and brought the CORBY to a hover. The pounding of the rain on the stealthcopter seemed louder because the engines were nearly silent. "Do you see that yacht tied to the dock directly below us?"
"What? Yes, of course. There is a small speedboat moored next to it."
"Watch as I enhance the sonar image."
After a few seconds, Jin hissed with an intake of breath. "Interesting. Very interesting." She unbuckled her restraint straps. "I will take a look."
"Let me extend the pontoons and land first," Mills said but he was speaking to an open hatch as Demrak Jin dove out into the darkness. Straight down three hundred feet she plunged, to punch down through the surface with hardly a splash. A normal Human would have been killed hitting water from that height, but the Gelydran womam took such a feat for granted.
Without showing any exasperation at his partner's impatience, Mills pressed a few buttons that extended the pontoons he had attached that afternoon and descended to a textbook perfect landing on the uneven surface of choppy waters. The advanced Trom impulse engines were still on, keeping the craft from capsizing or drifting. From behind his seat, he unhooked a helmet and fastened its lower seals to the high collar of his field suit. He had earlier fastened a short metal cylinder across his shoulder blades above the round disc of the gravity shield. When he lowered the helmet's visor, a fifteen minute oxygen supply would kick in.
His final action before exiting was to switch on the three running lights on the CORBY's lower hull where they could be seen from beneath the surface. Then, as smoothly as if he had practicing this all his life, Frank Mills dove out into the darkness of Long Island sound. The hatch slid shut behind him.
( the rest of the story )
4/6-4/7/2023
I.
Few helicopters would have been cleared to fly during such a storm. Even the US Coast Guard would have weighed the risk to a crew against any rescue mission. And for a flight intended for only research purposes, no copter would have launched into the heavy rain and gale force winds over Long Island Sound that night.
But the CORBY was like no craft available to any Human nation or organization. Sleek and sharklike in its contours, the black stealthcraft tore through the downpour as steadily as if it was flying on a calm summer afternoon. No visible lights showed. With its radar alignment systems working, the CORBY was as good as invisible in the darkness as it sped over the northern coastline.
At the combined cyclic/collective stick, the Trom who called himself Frank Mills kept his eyes moving constantly. From the row of small monitors screens showing views from all sides of the CORBY to the luminous windscreen which worked with both light enhancement and ultra-violet projectors to the sonar pulses lancing down into the black waters a thousand feet below, he saw everything he wanted to.
In the co-pilot seat, Demrak Jin shifted her weight irritably. Patience had never been one of her strong points. At first, she seemed to be only a rather short, thin woman with a wide flat face and sullen dark blue eyes. But further scrutiny of the stiff bristly white hair and odd facial bone structure would prove unsettling. In bright sunlight, a close examination would reveal three barely visible lines in a row on either side of her throat. These were gill slits. Demrak Jin was a Geldydra from the realm of Ulgor, a Cousin Race who were amphibious.
"I should be down there!" she abruptly cried, breaking the long silence. "That is MY element. Any monsters of the deep are my natural prey."
Mills responded with his usual bland mildness. "The sensors are probing for miles in every direction and down to a depth of three thousand feet. If any anomalies are detected, that would be the appropriate time for you to take action."
"You just don't have feelings," Jin continued. "A father and his child have been missing for the past few days. Before that, three teenage girls in their sailboat disappeared. This area is notorious for missing people. Only bits of wreckage have been recovered and you don't care."
The Trom turned his head to regard her without visible reaction to her tirade. Mills was a tall athletic man in one of the KDF black field suits. His short black hair and regular unremarkable features were offset by a pair of dark eyes that showed deep awareness and intelligence but no emotion. "I am what I was meant to be, Jin. Nothing will be gained by trying to provoke me."
"Arrrhh! I feel love! Anger! Sorrow! I have a heart. And you... you are like the cold machines you prize so highly!" she shouted right in his face.
"We are both true to our natures," Frank Mills responded in the same even tones he always used. "So far, sensors have detected nothing out of the ordinary. I intend to move closer to the shore and descend to three hundred feet. Under these conditions, we are not likely to be observed."
Folding her arms across her narrow chest, Jin scowled at the banks of pastel green and blue lights which filled the cockpit. Any one of those indicators turning red would have instantly gotten their full attention. After a long heavy silence, she grudgingly said, "You Trom say you value Human life."
"Yes," Mills answered. "We work behind the scenes in secrecy, but our goal is to improve conditions for Humans. We guide researchers to useful new discoveries and we release information conducive to reducing wars and violent crimes."
"You're not doing a very good job at that..." she grumbled.
"Events would have proceeded much more harmfully without our restrained interventions," Mills said. "As bad as history seems, it would have been much worse without the Trom pulling strings behind the scenes."
"So you say. Never mind. I am not like you, Trom. Sitting in a hard seat for six hours and circling the ocean is not what I was meant to be doing. I am a daughter of a warrior Race. Each Gelydra is born at the same time a shark hatches and the spirit of the shark lives in us!"
Instead of commenting, Mills pulled back on the stick and brought the CORBY to a hover. The pounding of the rain on the stealthcopter seemed louder because the engines were nearly silent. "Do you see that yacht tied to the dock directly below us?"
"What? Yes, of course. There is a small speedboat moored next to it."
"Watch as I enhance the sonar image."
After a few seconds, Jin hissed with an intake of breath. "Interesting. Very interesting." She unbuckled her restraint straps. "I will take a look."
"Let me extend the pontoons and land first," Mills said but he was speaking to an open hatch as Demrak Jin dove out into the darkness. Straight down three hundred feet she plunged, to punch down through the surface with hardly a splash. A normal Human would have been killed hitting water from that height, but the Gelydran womam took such a feat for granted.
Without showing any exasperation at his partner's impatience, Mills pressed a few buttons that extended the pontoons he had attached that afternoon and descended to a textbook perfect landing on the uneven surface of choppy waters. The advanced Trom impulse engines were still on, keeping the craft from capsizing or drifting. From behind his seat, he unhooked a helmet and fastened its lower seals to the high collar of his field suit. He had earlier fastened a short metal cylinder across his shoulder blades above the round disc of the gravity shield. When he lowered the helmet's visor, a fifteen minute oxygen supply would kick in.
His final action before exiting was to switch on the three running lights on the CORBY's lower hull where they could be seen from beneath the surface. Then, as smoothly as if he had practicing this all his life, Frank Mills dove out into the darkness of Long Island sound. The hatch slid shut behind him.
( the rest of the story )
