She swam quickly through the streets of Chora’s Height, making her way toward the tube that would lead her to the Sargasso Mountains and the Blue Lagoon casino.
<Has the IC done anything suspicious?> Tanis asked as she tucked in behind a personal submarine, allowing herself to be pulled along in its wake.
<No, she’s been spending her time at the casino—I’m still miffed that she got in as a patron. Anyway, she’s gambling and going to shows.>
<Modded?> Tanis asked.
<No, she’s using a breathing apparatus and a monofin tail. Nothing altered, from what I can see.>
Tanis couldn’t help a laugh, which came out of her vocalizers as a squeaky warble. <Once again, the machine looks more human than me.>
<Well, your IC’s biological camouflage is quite good, but it certainly wouldn’t stand up to mod surgery. She’d be outed for sure.>
<Well, she got in as a guest when you couldn’t work around the wait list, so whoever is pulling her strings is well connected. I imagine they could have modded her however they wished.>
<True…you know what doesn’t make sense, though?> Darla asked.
<There are so many things I could answer with. Which are you thinking of?>
<Well, I get why our nefarious puppetmaster used ‘you’ on Ceres. You were convenient, and ‘Commander Richards’ had a starship with a loyal crew, which is a definite asset.>
<Right.>
<Well,> Darla paused a moment. <No offense, but you’re not the best operative to hit the oligarch here in Europa.>
<I should hope not. I think whoever is behind this has limited resources.>
<Or….> Darla drew out the word.
<Or?>
<Or they have it in for you personally.>
Tanis mentally berated herself for never considering that she could be as much the target as the oligarch. <OK, so if someone does want to ruin my life because they don’t like me, who could that be? I’ve—Deering? Could it be her?>
<I don’t know. They shuffled her off to the ass-end of nowhere…though I still haven’t heard where that is. I don’t know if she could have orchestrated this.>
<Unless she pulled some strings with people loyal to her in the division before she shipped out,> Tanis suggested.
<True, could be that….>
<Or?>
<Or it’s the separatists in the Scattered Worlds Space Force. They’ve been trying to play Terra and Jove against one another for some time. You’re probably also on their shit-list.>
If Tanis could have groaned aloud, she would have. Instead, she had to satisfy herself with a warbling burble sound.
<Great, so I’m either an unwitting pawn who is convenient, I’m on a corrupt admiral’s shit-list and she’s pulling strings to ruin me and my reputation, or the SWSF is doing roughly the same thing.>
<At least you’re popular. No one even knows that I’m in your head.>
<Funny,> Tanis chuckled. <OK, Darla, we need to make a grab for the IC at the first opportunity. I don’t care if it runs the risk of alerting its controller, things can’t keep going on like this. I need answers.>
<I agree. I think the risk is worth it. I can fully breach the IC’s core, and when—well, if it makes contact, there will be no way we can miss it.>
Tanis was surprised that Darla hadn’t put up a fight on that front, but she wasn’t about to question her acquiescence.
<OK, that’s our plan, then.>
<Such as it is.>
STELLAR DATE: 03.05.4084 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sargasso Transport Tube, Europa
REGION: Jupiter, Jovian Combine, OuterSol
It was impossible not to gape at the Sargasso Mountains as they began to take shape in the distance.
While the Europan Ocean was a hundred kilometers deep, its floor was crisscrossed by massive ridges that stretched nearly to the ice crust, formed by the moon twisting for billions of years in Jupiter’s gravity.
One of the tallest series of ridge series in Europa, the Sargasso Mountains were home to much of the ocean life beneath the ice. Brilliant lights were anchored to the crust above, and luminous globes hung down in the water, illuminating the deep valleys.
Despite what Tanis had told Kaebel about Vesta and Mars having the highest mountains, the fact was that the highest peaks in the Sol System were really beneath Europa’s surface. From the ocean floor to the tops of the Sargasso Mountains, one could stack nearly five Olympus Monses.
Most people discounted Europa’s sub-ocean ridges because they were technically within the planet, beneath its crust. The argument was made that there were taller formations within Earth’s magma, and they were not counted as mountains.
But as Tanis approached the Sargasso Mountains, with their waving kelp forests growing up their slopes and schools of fish swimming throughout, she couldn’t help but think they looked like surface mountains with flocks of birds flying overhead.
These definitely count as mountains.
Here and there, human settlements dotted the slopes, many of them grandfathered into the preserve centuries before, while others were cooperative facilities run by humans and the dolphins who lived in the mountains.
<And here I thought Chora’s Height was beautiful,> Darla whispered as they drifted over the peaks, watching the sea life dart about.
<Still is, just a different kind of beautiful.>
When the Blue Lagoon finally came into view—situated in a shallow valley between two peaks—Tanis had to admit that the casino did look nice…if not for the fact that it shouldn’t be there. Knowing that the peoples of the Sargasso Mountains hated the place ruined its appeal.
Why are people such jerks? Tanis wondered rhetorically.
She knew the answer. It stemmed from what people prioritized above all else: the individual, the family unit, or the state.
She wasn’t sure where she fell in that spectrum—likely leaning toward the state, though she’d do anything for her crew, even if it meant going against the state.
People like Oligarch Alden clearly valued themselves above all others—which was especially disconcerting, since he oversaw the largest human population in existence.
An exit in the travel-tube appeared ahead, and Tanis twisted to the right, angling for the side-passage. The current moved her further over, keeping her from a collision with the divider, and then, with a sudden rush, she was out and into the warm waters over the mountaintops.
The first thing that Tanis noticed were the smells.
While the water in the tube had been pleasant, here it was alive. Her skin’s olfactory senses fed the aromas into her mind; the forests below, sprinkled with the scents of the life that lived within them, hints of minerals in the water, and the microbes that flourished all around.
A bale of giant turtles swam by, several of their number turning their heads to gaze at the strange creature that was Tanis as she swam past them.
It occurred to her that, given her many-tentacled, gleaming, silver body, she would seem far stranger to the sea life around her than they to her.
I’m almost like an alien, come down from space…. Beautiful and very likely dangerous.
A shadow drifted up from the depths, and Tanis watched a blue whale—with a calf tucked in close— swim by. She’d never seen any living thing so large, and the sight left her awestruck for nearly a full minute.
<You do have to get down there on time,> Darla reminded her. <You have a meeting with Damon, the staff manager, in thirty minutes.>
<Right…yeah…. It’s just amazing that something that large can get enough air from the water through gills alone.>
Darla highlighted a light blue ring above them. <Those are air domes. The larger sea animals that can’t absorb oxygen through their skin or enough through their gills take extra breaths there. Looks like that’s where mama and her baby are going.>
<Ahhh…makes sense,> Tanis sai
d as she shook herself free of all the woolgathering and picked up the pace, falling in with a few people and personal submarines that were also headed to the casino.
What became apparent very quickly was that the majority of the visitors to the Blue Lagoon had been modded for the trip. Mer-people were the most common, but some individuals looked almost normal, barring gills and webbed hands—which may or may not have been clothing or cosmetic mods. Others were more extreme, such as one…something…that appeared to be a diaphanous jellyfish.
The Link ident flagged the drifting blob as ‘Sam’ and indicated that it was a human citizen of the Jovian Combine, but Tanis couldn’t even spot anything as small as a human brain in the mass.
<That has to be aided by some sort of clever holotech,> she commented to Darla. <But even with my vision, I can’t tell where the costume or mods end and the holo begins.>
<Beats me. At first, I thought it was a remote-controlled avatar, and someone was controlling it via full-immersion sim, but it’s registered as a ‘primary personage’.>
<Huh,> was all Tanis could think of to say.
<That about sums it up. Oh, you have to use the employee entrance. It’s over there on the left.>
Tanis looked over the sprawling complex ahead. It was over two kilometers across, with towers, large buildings, and what appeared to be darker patches of water that were partially obscured by all the bubbles rising off the surrounding structures.
The employee entrance was around a small hillock and then down a gully, at the bottom of the shallow valley the casino rested in.
When Tanis reached the bottom, she could see a number of personal submarines attached to tethers near a shrouded set of doors.
An Auth & Auth arch stood in front of the door, flanked by a pair of guards who were rather unorthodox, which was to say that they looked like mako sharks with human-ish arms.
They floated next to the security arch, their mouths partially open, showing rows of teeth as they regarded Tanis.
<That sort of thing cannot comfort the patrons,> Darla commented.
<I guess they like the authentic experience.>
When she reached the arch, she paused—careful not to let her tentacles drift too closely to the guards’ mouths—waiting until one of them gave a jerk of its head and waved her through.
<You know…> Darla commented as they passed under the arch and through the doors. <Those weren’t human.>
<I saw that. Clever automatons, I suppose.>
<I don’t think so. I think those were sharks.>
Tanis gave a low whistle of appreciation, <Now that is dedication to authenticity. Though I bet that’s part of what bothers the dolphins.>
<Did you spot the group of orcas patrolling just outside the casino’s property line?> Darla asked.
<Missed them. I guess they’re not keen on a bunch of modded sharks in their backyard.>
<Seems not.>
Once inside, Tanis accessed the casino’s public network and pulled up its layout, swimming down the halls to where she was to meet the staff manager.
She passed a wide variety of people in the back passages. Everything from perfectly normal humans wearing divesuits and small rebreathers, to a wide array of merpeople, tentacled octohumans, and a few more sharks—which she steered clear of. She even saw a group that appeared to be otters with human-ish heads.
<A real life-choice to work here,> Tanis said to Darla as they passed a man who had the spiny body of a pufferfish.
<Says the Silversquid.>
<I’m a short-timer,> Tanis laughed in response as they came to an office area.
A woman in a divesuit floated behind an array of holodisplays, speaking without looking up from her work as Tanis arrived.
<Third door on the right. Damon is waiting for you.>
<Thanks,> Tanis replied, getting no response from the woman.
She carefully drifted down the hall, noticing that most of the people in this section were unmodified. When she came to his door, she saw that Damon, however, was not.
The man’s body was nearly jet black, and well-muscled from the waist up. From there down, he had long tentacles lined with octopus’s suction cups. Gold and silver bands adorned both his tentacles and his arms, and a silver crown rested on his head.
“Oh ho!” he roared when his eyes settled upon Tanis, the sounds transmitting through the water in a low rumble that she was able to translate into audible sound. “Well, well, Claire. When I sent up the enhancements, and Doctor Mauve said you’d agreed, I couldn’t believe it. But here you are…silver and beautiful.”
“Why thank you,” Tanis replied, dipping her head. “The dolphins I met on the way down gave me the name ‘Silversquid’.”
Damon’s expression darkened, and he muttered, “Dolphins.” Then he shrugged and smiled—not a nice smile—and added, “Still, they have good names for things. I like ‘Silversquid’. I’m changing your Blue Lagoon ident; that’s who you’ll be from here on out.”
The words carried a note of finality, and Tanis found herself not liking the…man’s…tone, nor the way he spoke in general. There was nothing in his words that was ‘wrong’; it was the way that he said them, as though Tanis was a possession of his, something he would use as he saw fit.
She supposed that, in a way, he’d already proven that such was the case. He had sent up a rather extensive list of body modifications, and—so far as he knew—she had accepted them without complaint.
The realization made her feel like a layer of oil had settled on her skin. As Claire, she was all about trying new things and simply having a good time. Tanis had adopted that feeling, and to her, the form she wore was an extension of that free spirit.
Damon made it all feel dirty, like she had turned herself into a thing that was only good for one purpose: to be possessed and controlled.
However, she didn’t feel an urge to tear herself free of the mods that were her body because he’d made them feel wrong. Rather, she contemplated what it would be like to slap Damon in the face with thirty-two tentacles. Repeatedly.
<Dude’s a dick,> Darla commented a moment later, summing up Tanis’s thoughts.
<Yup. I’m more than motivated to find my doppelganger, get what I need from her mind, and get out of here.>
Tanis realized that Damon was staring at her, waiting for a response, and she nodded. “That’s fine. I’m OK with being Silversquid.”
The man’s eyes narrowed. “OK, Silversquid. We need to get something straight. You may be a wealthy woman who owns a bunch of shit out in the Oort cloud, but you signed a contract. A very clear and ironclad contract. For the next year, you belong to the Blue Lagoon. So when I say that you are the Silversquid, I mean that I expect you to behave like an automaton squidwoman at all times. Do I make myself clear?”
Tanis quickly considered a scenario where she simply subdued Damon—with extreme prejudice—before searching the casino for her doppelganger.
<Don’t even go there,> Darla cautioned. <The network here makes the TSF’s at Vesta look like swiss cheese. I haven’t come close to getting past their staff-only subnets. If you take out Damon, you’ll have sharks biting off your tentacles in five minutes.>
Tanis nearly laughed aloud. <I don’t think I ever expected to hear someone say that—especially not about me.>
<Deep breaths. Answer the man.>
“Of course,” Tanis said without any emotion in her voice. “I am Silversquid.”
A wide—and very unpleasant—smile broke out across Damon’s face. “Excellent. Now. You’re rather unique—both because we don’t have anything in the tanks that looks like you, and also because you’re a rich woman who wants to be an autonomous object.” His smile grew toothy as he spoke. “Yes, I know what your type is into. You feel guilty about your wealth, so you want be punished for it—not so much that you’re willing to give it up, though. So after everyone has gotten a good look at you, I’m going to have you pe
rform. A friend of mine sent me logs of you low-g dancing on the Whiskey Tango, so I know you have the moves. Can you sing, as well?”
Tanis nodded. “I took lessons as a child, I’m passable.”
Damon gave her a calculating look. “Well, I imagine Doctor Mauve gave you an underwater vocal system; it can simply be programmed to hit the right notes. We can give it the words, too.”
“I speak orca.” Tanis offered the information in an entirely bland tone, keeping to the character that Damon demanded she play.
“Oh? Well now, that will be fantastic. I’ll send that information to Saniyah, our production manager. Expect her to pass you the song you’ll be singing, and the dance moves. Ever since I told her what you’d agreed to, she’s been quite excited to put together a routine for you.
<Well this sucks. Being put on display in ‘the tank’ and giving a performance won’t give me a lot of mobility.>
<We’ll think of something,> Darla said. <Don’t forget, you still have a ship overhead. If you call them, they’ll cut a hole through the ice if they have to.>
Tanis held back a grimace—not that her current facial structure could make one. <One of my goals is to complete this mission without my crew seeing me like this—or at least knowing it’s me.>
“Well? What are you floating there for?” Damon demanded. “Get moving, you stupid sea cow. Arnold is waiting for you at the tube to Tank 11.”
He waved his hand in dismissal, and Tanis floated out of the room, reminding herself that Claire would probably enjoy all this—even if the man’s treatment of her had Tanis at the edge of a blind rage.
As she drifted past the woman at the front desk, Tanis forced herself to accept that her current situation required the same mindset as the final night on the Whiskey Tango, when she had been fetching drinks.
She had to lose herself in the role and really become a gleaming, silver automaton squid. It was either that, or swim back into Damon’s office and see how many tentacles she could wrap around his neck before his head popped off.
When she reached the entrance to Tank 11, a man in a divesuit was patiently waiting for her, an appreciative smile on his face.