Sephora and Calder

        Sephora could think of worse places to be when the lights went out, but not many. At least if she were back home in Meriens, she’d be waiting out the sixty seconds it takes for the power to return under the safety of it’s clear domed streets. But she wasn’t close to home. Nowhere near it. And sixty seconds is a long time to sit in absolute darkness. 

At the bottom of a sea trench.

In the middle of nowhere.

At least Calder was with her. She’d snuck out to meet him through Abyss14, one of the many black holes of Mariana’s inter-aquatic subway system. She and Calder had grown up together. His parents rule the Kingdom of Oceania, and she is the heir to the throne of Meriens. As kids they’d spent countless hours together in Edium, chasing each other through the storied halls of the palace, playing hide and seek and getting into all kinds of juvenile mischief while the Royal Council met behind closed doors. 

Their competitiveness was legendary, often leading to bloody noses and bruised egos on both sides. Today would be no different. She had a score to settle. The last time they’d raced Sea Speeders through the winding trenches of Corfu, Calder had gotten the best of her. They’d done this many times before, each claiming bragging rights equally. That neither of their parents approved of this behaviour, just made it more fun. After all, she often thought, we’re almost fourteen. We’re old enough to make our own decisions.  

Calder’s speeder hummed, the engine’s vibration rattling the tank, tickling the insides of his thighs - a subtle reminder of the force waiting to be unleashed. 

Exiting an Abyss at hyperspeed creates a current strong enough to toss an unsuspecting - and unprepared - rider from his speeder. The spiralling whirr from inside the abyss grew to a crescendo, then all at once stopped. Calder’s fingers wrestled the handle bars and his body cringed, in anticipation of the force. When Sephora appeared - in a smeared blur of  purple and black - he was ready. His speeder tilted, rocking violently at first, then growing gentler with each passing wave. She emerged amidst the bubbles, and upon seeing her safe, he smiled. Maneuvering in beside him, the speakers in her helmet crackled. 

“And how was your trip?” he asked.

“Fine.” she replied. “But you already know14 isn’t my favorite.” Her eyes met his. 

“Yeah, I know. It does get a little creepy in there.” 

        Travelling on a single sea speeder through hyperspeed is a bit of an acquired taste. The larger Sea Rovers handle it better. Only the truly daring - or defiant - try it in a single seater. You’re moving faster than the speed of light, so it’s mostly dark, but sometimes color mirages play tricks on your mind. It has often been described as, ‘a neon, tie-dyed electrically charged mess that rattles your brain and flattens your organs.’ 

And that’s the “fun” ones. 

The not-so-fun ones, like 14 for example, rattle more, flatten more, and may even do it in complete and utter darkness. 

“No biggie,” she finally answered. “Not creepy enough to keep me from kicking your butt today.”

His head fell back and he laughed, slapping his knee mockingly. “You so funny, Zeph. You seem to forget what happened last time.”

“Pure luck. And if it wasn’t for that sandcrawler getting in my way, you’d have only seen the back end of my speeder disappear in front of you.” 

He smiled and shook his head. Same old Sephora. She hated losing at anything, and hated losing to Calder even more.  

        “Well, let’s see it then.” His speeder clicked into gear and he took off into the canyon, churning the water in front of her in its wake. Oh it’s on, she thought, then cranked the throttle.

        The jagged rocks that made up the walls of the Corfu Trench were not nearly as dangerous as some of the ominous creatures hidden within its crevices. Not that they’d be sitting still long enough to have to worry about them anyway. 

Sand billowed out from beneath their speeders as they drew in beside each other, hovering just inches from the canyon floor. Rays of light streamed over the cliff tops high above them, reflecting the dark blue haze of their galaxy’s Blue Sun. The orange rocks of the corfu Canyon warmed her heart and made her feel safe. Of course, that she was with Calder didn’t hurt either. 

But when all light disappeared suddenly, all that changed. 

Her speeder stalled, then settled on the ground. 

Calder’s too. 

Mariana’s Sun had been doing this a lot lately. Sometimes it’d go out for hours at a time, leaving the galaxy in frigid darkness. At least at home they had back up generators to power the lights on, out here, there was nothing. 

Some of the smartest people in all of Mariana had yet to understand why this was happening, or the connection between the sun going out and all the electrical devices dying for a minimum of sixty seconds.

Far from home, and in what the scientists call Midnight Dark, - a complete and utter absence of any light -  Sephora started her countdown. Sixty, fifty-nine, fifty-eight, fifty-seven...

Not only could they not see each other, their com-links were down too. 

Fifty-five, fifty-four...

She sat on her speeder, frozen in fear. Her body convulsed in shivers. Her fingertips danced on the handle bars like she was playing a piano. It could be the cold, she thought - when the sun shut off, the temperature drops were immediate and severe -  but deep down she knew better. Calder was close by, she could sense him, but not knowing exactly where it was unnerving. 

Forty-nine, forty eight, forty-seven...

The creatures must love when the sun dies , she thought, like a buffet lunch all ready for them.

She closed her eyes and tried to take deep, even breaths. When she opened them again, they may as well have been closed, for she was still in total darkness.  Thirty-seven, thirty-six, thirty-five...

Something tugged at her right arm.

Her breathing cadence faltered.  Her heart began to race. Could be Calder, she thought. She spun around, though it was a wasted movement as blackness enveloped her on all sides.

Another pinch, this time at the backside of her arm, strong enough to pull the layer of kevlar from her skin, then snapping it back in place. Like a fish toying with the bait on a line, it pulled at her with such force that she was nearly pulled from her speeder. 

Not Calder. Definitely not Calder.

She’d lost track of her countdown.   

The current swirled around her and she swayed in its wake. Whatever it was, it was big.

Twenty seconds left? Ten? Her nerves sizzled like the frayed ends of severed electrical wire. Eyes closed, she stilled. If it was a shark, she’d be able to feel it in the current around her, but she had to clear her mind. Focus. 

Off her right shoulder, the water trembled, and she folded forward, slamming her chest into the tank. A wave rushed over her back as it sailed by. 

Suddenly, the lights inside her helmet turned on and she shouted, “Calder, Shark!”

The speeders engine roared to life. She jammed it into gear, and opened the throttle. 

Calder’s voice crackled through the white noise in her intercom, “Follow me!” 

The speeders sliced through the water. Calder knew this area well enough, but their parents didn’t want them here for good reason. Sephora stayed close on his tail, keeping his speeder in the single beam of light in front of her. 

But there was more going on than she could see in that single beam. She felt a  presence, much larger than before, covering them, like a massive blanket forcing them to the bottom of the canyon. 

She burst through the cloud of sea sand that billowed as the back of Calder’s speeder bounced off the Canyon floor. They’re called ‘speeders’ because in the open water, they’re like little rockets, capable of getting up to sixty miles per hour.  The downside of that kind of power is that they become unstable and difficult to handle. 

The speedometer in the upper right corner of her helmet display read forty-five. When her speeder wobbled, her once long and sinewy muscles tightened into rigid blades of steel. 

“Calder, this is too fast!” 

“It’s above us, we’ve gotta get ahead of it!”

She knew he was right, but at this speed, one mistake could land them into the side of the trench. If the sun would just turn back on, at least they could see where they were going. 

“Banking right” said Calder. “Ready,”

His speeder tilted on its side, then zoomed around one of the canyon walls. The weight above seemed to lighten, so she eased up a little. 

And that’s when it hit her.

Lifted from her speeder, she landed on the ground then tumbled forward, her body, slave to the momentum of the water.  Lying on the seafloor motionless, she stilled even the tiniest of her muscles. In the glow of her speeder’s explosion, Sephora found her predator.

It was no shark. That’d have been preferable. 

This was the one creature you’d least want to meet in a dark canyon.

As lethal as intelligent, Jormunjar’s one flaw was that its vision was based on movement. Sephora knew to keep still so it couldn’t find her. The glow of the wrecked speeder faded, and so too did the outline of Jormunjar. Laying on her side, knees curled into her chest, she shallowed her breathing. The thought that it might have kept chase of Calder crossed her mind, but she wasn’t about to risk it.  

When the water around her trembled, she knew.

It was still here. 

Searching. 

It’s hot breath swirled in the current that caressed her body.  Jormunjar could change shape and size to suit its needs. One minute it’d have wide wings that could cover two unsuspecting teens on sea speeders, and the next, transform into small fish to search for a girl hiding in the shadows. 

Trying not to breathe, she let her eyes close.

But Jormunjar wasn’t about to let her. Almost as though it was willing them open, Sephora felt her eyelids move. 

She stared into the blackness before her and suddenly, staring back at her like white diamonds burning blue was Jormunjar’s massive eyes. Their heat bore into her, and she fought the urge to squirm, for the slightest movement now would give her away. In the glow of its eyes, she saw two towering horns stretching into the darkness above her. She’d never encountered Jormunjar before, but she’d heard enough stories about it destroying entire seas ships to know it was not something to mess with.  

As one of the largest monsters in the Mariana galaxy, it had few predators. It’s massive head swayed back and forth, scouring the water for her. Sand showered the glass of her helmet. Doing her part, Sephora kept absolutely quiet and still, making it as difficult as possible for the monster to find her. 

As long as she didn’t make any noise, she’d be okay. 

“Sephora!” Calder’s voice crackled in her head, “Where are you?”

She didn’t dare answer. 

Calder would come back for her, she knew he would, but Jormunjar would be waiting. He’d be walking right into a trap. 

“Please Sephora...please, answer me. Are you okay?”

 Jormunjar inched closer, it’s head only a few feet from her now.  She could feel its smothering presence. Staring straight into the fire of its eyes, uncomfortably comfortable in the knowledge that it couldn’t see her if she didn’t move. She’d need a distraction. She knew, as she suspected Jormunjar did, that it was close to finding her. 

Calder would be the distraction she didn’t want. 

“Sephora? Come in, Sephora. If you can hear me, stay where you are. I’m coming for you.”

No Calder, please...please don’t. 

She wanted to tell him to stay away, to be patient, but she couldn’t.  Jormunjar would devour her if she so much as breathed, and that was becoming increasingly harder with every passing second. She wanted to scream, to cry, to swim away, but all of those options would end her life. So she did what she did best. Suppressed her feelings and cleared her mind.  

The light of his approaching sea speeder bounced off the cragged walls, Jormunjar turned towards it, then closed its eyes, disappearing into the blackness. 

The force of its current swept past her, and she yelled. “Calder! Turn back!”

She could hear the air leave him, “Sephora.”

“Stop! It’s Jormunjar! It’s coming towards you!”  

“It’s too late. He’s seen me.” 

In the dead air between them, Sephora made a decision. 

He wasn’t going to die today.  

And neither was she. 

On her feet, she reached behind her and unhooked her Marriss tank. The benefit of paying attention in chemistry class was knowing that you should never fire an ion laser into a Mariss Oxygen tank.

“When I say, now, go vertical!”

“Got it!” Calder replied. 

She twisted the top of the tank, aimed it towards Calder’s light, then popped the lid. 

The tank took off like a rocket.

“Now!” she yelled, then raised her forearm and pressed the ion laser button on the tiny control panel. A short pulse of blue light cut through the water, then connected with her tank, igniting it into a fiery blue ball of sizzling electricity. Rocks tumbled on either side of the trench into a pile on the canyon floor. The deep moan of Jormunjar’s demise reverberated in her helmet. In it’s silhouette, she noticed that part of it’s long slithering tail was missing. Blown clean from its body in the explosion. 

The call to Calder garnered only airwave noise in reply. 

Surely, he went vertical.

“Calder? Are you there?”

This might be one of those worst case scenarios: Alone in utter Darkness. Out of air. No speeder. No foreseeable way home.

“Anyone up for a Jormunjar barbeque?”  She smiled at the sound of his voice.

“Will you get down here and pick me up? I seem to have misplaced my Mariss tank.”

“Yeah, about that?”

“Uh-huh?”

“Thanks.”

Her smile widened. “Don’t mention it. Your turn next time.”

He guided his speeder into the canyon and she lit the fluorescent light on her wrist.

Sea speeders were never meant for two people, though they could certainly handle it. But what was more of a relief to Sephora at this particular moment, was that they were designed to carry two extra Mariss tanks on board. After all, you wouldn’t dare leave your kingdom without extra air. 

 Calder pulled up beside the white glow of her bracelet. “We should get out of here. Jormunjar may have left to lick his wounds, but he’ll be back.”

 Sephora unclipped the Mariss tank from the speeder, then handed it to Calder. With her back to him, he clicked it into place. 

“You’ve had the Liquigen treatment, right?”

“Yeah, you?”

“Yeah. I know they say you can breathe without Mariss for like, an hour, but I’ve never actually tested it. Have you?”

“No, but I was beginning to think I was going to have to.” She chuckled at the thought of having to try and breathe water.

“Hop on.” He tilted his head, motioning behind him.

She straddled the speeder and slid in against him. With her arms wrapped around his waist, she joined her hands together just beneath his chest. She was secured around him now, and ready for the jump to hyperspeed. 

“14 home?” he asked.

“Yes. Straight onto Meriens.” She sighed, “And a date with my parents to explain why I’m in need of a new speeder.”