Forever Magazine Issue 94 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: magazine, science fiction, Science Fiction - Short Stories, science fiction magazine, short fiction
Publisher: Wyrm Publishing
Published: 2022-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

III.

In the months that followed, Eunice found herself thinking more intensely about time. As she traced her wandering path from one whale fall to another, the shark faded to a distant memory, floating at the edges of her consciousness. Yet it was always there, lurking silently, and it came to stand for all the unknowns that she had yet to confront, like the prospect of death in the mind of someone living.

After the attack, Eunice had spent the next few days checking all of her systems. She found no evidence of serious damage, and as soon as Wagner had recharged, she set off again, leaving her lights extinguished. Whenever she returned to the fall where she had encountered the shark, her fears rose again, and although she met no other predators, she was still relieved when she finally discovered another fall that would allow her to move on.

But something had changed. In the past, she had allowed herself to fantasize about what she might find at her destination—James, the charging station, the seven sisters she had left at home. Sometimes she had even imagined seeing Galatea and the others from the vent system, as if they had miraculously made it back on their own. It had been a kind of dreaming in advance, but now she pushed such thoughts away, until only the image of the tether remained.

Occasionally, there would be a break in her routine. One came whenever she arrived at a new hydrothermal vent. The first one after the shark attack had been relatively fresh, with lava flows shining with glass, bundles of tube worms two meters high, and sessile jellyfish clinging to the rocks. Eunice tried to draw comfort from the sight, and she was tempted to stay, but she finally moved on. Even a vent would not last forever, and sooner or later, she would break down herself.

A few days afterward, she finished recharging at a new whale fall and went to the surface to check for signals. She was rising into the photic zone, the water around her gradually brightening, when her velocity sensors picked up a change. Something large was directly overhead.

It was a whale. Eunice slowed her ascent, gazing up in wonder as it passed across her field of vision, outlined by the faint glow of the sun. It was fifteen meters long and dark gray, its skin covered with the pale patches left by parasites. She could make out the parallel furrows that ran along the underside of its throat. Looking to one side, she saw another whale, and then another. She hung there until the tenth and final whale had passed, accompanied by a smaller shape, nearly black, that was swimming at its flank. It was a mother and her calf.

As she watched the pod pass by, transfixed, Eunice was filled with longing for Thetis, Galatea, Dione, Clio, and the seven sisters who had remained in Seattle. She wondered bleakly if Galatea was still at the vent, or if she had

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