False Demise II: Primal Awakening
I hate this world, Jenna thought for the thousandth time. Jenna had been on Earth since she was seven, and since then she had been orphaned and labeled an endangered species. She missed her home world�s warm, clean waters. But most of all she missed Sericah itself. Her planet had imploded, taking all of its inhabitants with it. All except her parents and herself, that was. However, Jenna�s parents soon fell ill on Earth and shriveled away, leaving her all alone and the only Serican left. Subsequently, she was treated like a freak, like something unnatural, and was shunned by her colleagues. Being from a planet composed of mainly water, Jenna looked different from everyone else. She was taller with gills and large, slitted, green-gold eyes. Her hair was long and ice-white, and her fingers were long and sharp, almost like the talons of a bird of prey.
The cast of her thought grew more depressing as she went, and so she abandoned them and sighed. She leaned dispiritedly over the railing of the ship she was on, and tried to focus on her current job.
Having being forced to take school, Jenna had naturally enrolled in an oceanography class. At the moment she was on an exploratory cruise in the Arctic Circle, and the assignment was to catalogue at least 100 species in the five days of the trip. She personally enjoyed observing the waters in the �wee hours� of the morning; that was when you saw all the interesting animals, not just mundane plankton. Jenna felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and she whipped around at a slight, yet seemingly cacophonous, noise. It was one of her classmates, Alexander Pennyman.
�Whatcha doin� up so late Jenna?�
Jenna rolled her eyes inwardly and turned back to the quiet waters. Alex was one of the only people on this forsaken planet who talked to her. As a result, he often unwittingly encroached upon her �me time�. Jenna looked Alex in the eye and replied:
�Those ditzes below deck forget that animals actually come out at night too, indeed, more frequently than in the day�, "
Jenna cut off abruptly and listened carefully. A loud clicking noise was coming from the icy waters below, a sound that sent chills up her spine.
�Do you hear that?� she asked Alex.
Alex nodded vigorously. Jenna looked cautiously over the railing of the ship.
�Oh my god�that�s a giant squid! No one has ever seen one alive before, let alone in the wild! This is huge!� She cast a quick glance at Alex. �Its behavior is erratic. I�m going to go check it out.�
Without further ado, Jenna jumped into the Arctic waters below, causing scarcely a ripple.
Jenna adjusted her eyes to the darkness of her surroundings and stared swimming. She rounded the bend of the boat and stared. It was massive! It has eyes the size of a human head with large slitted irises. It had tentacles that were at least 40 feet long! Jenna looked into its huge golden eyes, and upon seeing her, the squid began to speak.
��HUMAN!! NO, YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THOSE EVIL CREATURES. YOU ARE ONE OF US, A SEA DWELLING BEAST. YOU WILL BECOME CARETAKER OF THESE OCEANS. IT IS DESTINED.��
Jenna clutched her head and screamed in agony. White-hot daggers of pain pressed behind her eyes. Fire coursed through every neuron. In the rational part of her mind, she knew that the squid was really just clicking and snapping its beak. But then how did she understand it?
The creature began to speak again.
��YOU WERE BORN ON A DIFFERENT WORLD, BUT YOU WERE MEANT FOR EARTH. YOU CAN UNDERSTAND, THE FIRST WHO CAN IN THOUSANDS OF YEARS! YOU MUST LEAVE THIS PITIFUL, TERRESTRIAL EXISTENCE AND JOIN THE FREEDOM OF THE WATERS!��
Jenna looked at the behemoth, shivering slightly. �I�I cannot join you now. I have to finish my education�tie up loose ends. When I finish that, then I will join you. I promise.�
She began to swim away from the beats when she felt a tentacle wrap gently around her foot.
��DO NOT FORGET YOUR PROMISE. WE WILL BE WAITING���
With that remark, the squid let go of her leg and descended back into the murky depths. Jenna, shaken but unharmed, swam around the bend to her waiting classmate.
Alex paced around the deck, searching the dark waters for Jenna. She had been down there for a long time�too long to just be looking at some squid, even if it was rare. He stared pacing again. He could hear a lot of clicking and snapping�and it sounded agitated. Suddenly, the noises stopped. Worried, Alex stared into the water. He saw Jenna�s white hair floating in a ghostly cloud in the murk. Then there was a loud splash and she was standing right beside him. Alex jumped back, scared out of his skin.
�H-how?� he stammered.
�Lots of practice,� she replied. �And don�t ask about what went on down there�I�m still not totally sure of it myself.� Jenna shook her head, spraying him with water. He gave a disgruntled snort and she grinned wickedly, the haunted look momentarily driven from her eyes.
�However, I know one thing. We are definitely going to get a good grade on this assignment.�
Alex laughed and Jenna shoulders slumped slightly as she shivered in the slight breeze. She seemed drained.
�My luck that I�m wet when there�s a breeze out,� she said resignedly.
Alex promptly handed her his jacket�which she accepted with a grateful look. He walked to the door to below deck and opened it, and they walked through together and down to their separate rooms.
Jenna was bored to tears. She had already given her presentation on the species that she has seen and was now listening to Ms. Faranthal lecture. Jenna heard a slight change in her teacher�s intonation and looked up. Ms. Faranthal began to explain the next trip.
�Okay class, next trip is in two days. We have a two-day journey to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, where we will observe our surroundings in the new Saranelli Station. The rip is mandatory, so if you get seasick and/or claustrophobic, sit in the back or near a window.�
There were a few titters of laughter.
�You think I was joking? Very well. Research project! Find out who first explored the trench and who invented the technology to allow us to do so!�
The class collectively groaned.
Jenna peered out of the sub window. She had completed her assignment and was on her way to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. She was looking forward to seeing the station and all of its complex equipment. She brooded on the station for a while, but was interrupted shortly. About five kilometers down into the trench, there was a loud crashing noise. There was a scream from Ms. Faranthal as an enormous dent appeared in the hull and the lights faded to nothing. Slowly, female screams filled the cabin. Jenna reached in her pack and pulled out several flares. She lit them with a strategically placed hit. Everyone instantly looked at her as she started passing the flares around. Jenna could see the fear in their eyes. She spoke up.
�Right�something has definitely gone wrong. Anyone here a medic?� She received a few tentative �ayes� and some hand in the air. �Good, good. That was quite a hit we got; you had better help any wounded we might have. Those who are mechanically inclined had better check out those lights and the major systems. Meanwhile, I�ll go checkout what hit us.� Everyone scrambled to work and Jenna ran to the airlock. Alex joined her.
�Jenna,� he said, slightly panicky, �we don�t have EVA suits. You�ll decompress and die!�
Jenna suppressed a smile�now was not the time. �Alex, I don�t need a suit. And I have gills.� Jenna pulled her hair from her neck and revealed three long vertical slits on each side.
�Just keep an eye on me, okay?� she said.
Alex gulped and nodded.
Jenna clambered out of the airlock and accustomed herself to the water temperature. She gaped open-mouthed at the gargantuan dent in the sub�s port hull. She scanned the waters, looking for the creator of the dent. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw it. A huge shark was swimming about the area, as if looking. Remembering how she had been able to speak to the squid, Jenna called out to the prehistoric monster. It turned and focused on her with its large eyes. Blood stained its teeth and gore littered its hide.
��WHAT DO YOU WANT, SERICAN! I HAVE TO DESTROY THIS SHIP OF HUMANS!��
�No!� Jenna was frantic. �These humans are not evil! They are children�they should live for much longer yet. They have lives, long lives, left at their disposal!�
Quick as lightning, she slapped a device on the hull. An electrical field encompasses the ship, and the ancient behemoth looked at the hull. The device made the hull appear to be translucent, and the shark scanned the ship and saw that there were indeed children inside.
�"I AM SORRY, BUT HUMANS HAVE KILLED TOO MANY OF MY KIND. THIS PLACE IS OUR ONLY SANCTUARY.��
�I understand. We will leave as soon as possible.� Jenna removed the device from the hull and returned to the sub�s airlock.
�We have cleared the turbulence Captain�
Jenna sat in her makeshift Captain�s Chair. Ever since she had warded off the Megaladon, the giant shark, the others had unanimously made her leader. It was under sad circumstances, for Ms. Faranthal has gone into a coma after hitting her head and had not woken up. It had been two weeks; two long weeks of drifting about without propulsion. Jenna�s patience was wearing thin, and she had a tough decision to make. The propulsion was not going to reactivate, so they could either float forever or settle down in the nearby catacombs. She slowly stood up from her chair and looked at her crew. She quietly gave them their choices and all hell broke loose. They trusted her choices implicitly, but any choice in this case would be a major one. All of a sudden, there was a loud crash and water started flooding the cabin. Ten humanoid creatures entered the sub and strange ethereal tentacles began to extend from their bodies, wrapping around Jenna�s crew.
�Stop! What are you doing! What are you?�
The creatures whirled their bodies around and spoke gently to her.
��WE CHANGE YOUR CREW INTO CAROUNI. WE HAVE WATCHED YOUR DIFFICULITIES AND HAVE DECIDED TO INTERVENE. BY CONVERTING YOUR CREW, WE FREE YOU FROM THIS SHIP AND LET YOU SEEK REFUGE IN THE OCEAN.��
Jenna waited for them to finish speaking. She had another question to ask of them.
�I understand your motives, but why are you not converting me as well?�
The CAROUNI looked at her. ��YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE CONVERTED. YOU ARE ALREADY PERFECT FOR THIS WORLD.��
Jenna looked at her now-converted crew. With a smile and a gesture, she took her crew away from the sinking wreck of a sub and led them to the Catacombs, their new home.
They had been in the Catacombs for 2,000 years. In that time a complex and intricate social structure had developed. Their species, at first numbering in the tens, now was in the ten millions. Everyone had prospered. Jenna had found out that she could not die, so she had seen the deaths of her friends and family, as well as her husband Alex. Now, she decided to leave the CAROUNI�temporarily�to visit the human world. Although her people didn�t want her to leave even for a short amount of time, Jenna had to see what the human race had done in the last millennia. With a promise of return, Jenna left the Catacombs in search of dry land.
Several days later, Jenna came up to the California coast. She could remember the sunny beaches, the high traffic, and the noisy cities. In a way, she missed it. She walked up onto the beach and saw�nothing. No people, no buildings, nothing�
The human race had destroyed itself. It had decimated itself, and now the CAROUNI were the only ones left to run a world that should have hosted billions. It was a dead world, and the CAROUNI would have to bring it back to life.
