Page 4 of Spectral Seas (Spectral Worlds #2)

A VIbrANT SWIRL of blues, purples, and pinks barraged the wall of the glass elevator as it slipped through the Bubble’s onion layers out to the Viridis plane. The rainbow explosion dissipated to a faint moss green that—when the elevator came to rest—became a thick pea soup fog.

“Check your visors,” said Uhggwa. “One small leak is all it takes.”

Abby and Leta faced each other and repeated the peer inspection they’d conducted on the terminal floor.

“Lines, clips, and visor read sealed,” said Leta.

“Lines, clips, and visor read sealed,” repeated Abby. With his chin-chip, he silently asked, “ Are you okay? ”

“ Fine, ” she responded.

“We’re good,” Abby said aloud.

Uhggwa nodded then raised his hand slightly toward the Viridian next to him, who responded to the signal by tapping on the elevator console. The lift door slid open, and the mossy mist crept in .

The five stepped from the lift onto an empty glass concourse, then out into the Viridis Plane. Outside of the glass hung a deep green mist.

Droplets formed on the outer surface of their visors.

“Is it raining?” asked Leta.

“No,” said Uhggwa. “That is the sweet Viridian atmosphere.”

Uhggwa reached up to his visor. There was a profound click then his suit let out a slow hiss, signifying the release of the Viridian’s locked seal. The other two Viridians did the same. Uhggwa then lifted his helmet, freeing the eight tendril arms and two tentacles surrounding his mouth. His eyelids spread open and his large, black, W-shaped shaped pupils fixed on Abby. The thin rift fins running along the sides of his head rippled as he flexed his tentacles to reveal long rows of denticulated suckers.

From beneath the wriggling tendril arms, where Abby suspected was a mouth, came a gurgle, followed by Uhggwa’s digitized voice. “Welcome to Viridis.”

The green mist distorted as two figures materialized, Viridians wearing commando fatigues with the Elite Guard trident insignia emblazoned on their chests and short pulse rifles in their hands.

“They can shift?” Leta silently asked.

“No,” Abby chin-chipped. “They chromatically blend with their surroundings.”

The two new Viridians each slapped a fist to their chests and one gurgled. Uhggwa returned the salute, then with his digitizer said, “If the Benediximus Abernathy Squire and Leta Serene care to join me, our vessel is ready.”

“Certainly,” said Abby.

The fog distorted again and a dark elliptical craft with a clear canopy, materialized into view before them. Beneath the canopy were six swivel seats, one of which was occupied by a driver wearing the same commando fatigues as the two Viridians who greeted them. As they approached the craft, the canopy opened, sliding back into the underbelly hull of the ship. Uhggwa gestured for Abby and Leta to take seats in the rear, then he sat in one of the middle two and pivoted to face them. After his entourage took the remaining two seats, the canopy slid back over them into place and with a low hum, the vehicle levitated up and out into the fog.

There was no way of telling where they were by sight and only the slightest sensations in his gut told Abby if they were ascending or descending. The experience reminded him of travelling through the heavily fogged lower canyons of the NorEast meg.

Uhggwa continued to face them. He fixed his gaze on Leta. A gurgle emerged, then his digitized voice translated, “I can tell by your face that you are uncomfortable, Leta Serene.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s my nature, I guess. Not to be uncomfortable, I mean. It’s my visor.”

“I understand,” he said. “I feel the same when I’m outside of Viridis. And it’s not the visor alone. These suits are so constricting.”

“Yes,” said Leta. “Constricting. That’s exactly how they feel.”

Uhggwa reached into a side compartment where he found a white cloth. “Here,” he said. “Wipe your visor with this.”

Leta smiled, took the cloth, and cleared her helmet’s faceplate.

“That’s amazing.”

“The film adheres so quickly out of the portal that you don’t realize it’s there. ”

Leta shared the cloth with Abby. He wiped away the layer of moisture that spread across the bubble face of his helmet. “That brightens things up.”

There was a subtle change in the hum of the propulsion system.

“Are we there already?” asked Leta.

“Not quite,” said Uhggwa. “The craft has decelerated so we can transition.”

“Transition?”

Water began to rise above the sides of the canopy.

“Once the ship submerges, the voyage continues deep into the coastal waters.”

The green sea of the Viridian plane, what Abby imagined to be a mirror of the Homeland’s Atlantic Ocean, was brighter than the fog-blanketed surface. Schools of small, metallic-bellied fish raced beside them, trailed by others as big as the craft, while overhead, dark ominous silhouettes blocked out sections of light. Abby gazed up toward them until darkness replaced the light of the surface.

“Does night come sooner here?” asked Leta.

“It’s the depth,” said Abby. “We’ve dove too deep for the light above to penetrate. We’re in the midnight zone.”

“The midnight zone? That sounds ominous.”

“It’s not. Even in the Alpha Plane, light simply can’t penetrate beyond a thousand meters. I believe it’s less here.”

“We’ll be diving deeper?”

“To the ocean floor,” said Abby.

“It’s not much farther,” said Uhggwa.

“Are those the green lights of the citadel?” asked Leta.

The Viridian let out a soft rolling purr that awkwardly translated through his digitizer as, “Ha. Ha. Ha. ”

One of the bright emerald beacons drifted by, followed by another, then another, until the ship was surrounded by hundreds of tiny, green, pulsating balloons.

“It’s a bloom of jellyfish,” said Abby.

“Oh!” Leta’s eyes widened in wonder. “They’re beautiful.”

“There are many such things of beauty in the Viridis plane,” said Uhggwa.

The craft gently tilted upward as it glided through the rapidly-passing mass. The sea floor, invisible to them moments before, appeared ahead in the beams of the craft’s foreword lights, sloping steeply upward. The hum of the propulsion system gradually gained in pitch as they skimmed up the face of the underwater mountain, an escarpment scarred with crags, gaps forested with lace-leafed kelps, and gnarled, alien-tubed plants that jutted from pools of green sand. When the craft reached the summit, the high-pitched whir dulled again to a low hum. To Abby’s side, a great cliff curved out into the creamy jade abyss.

“It’s a crater,” said Leta.

“Volcano.” Abby smiled. “We’re here.”

The ship dipped forward into the caldron, gradually revealing the faint outline of an elaborate dome and the first of the twisted, green stone towers within it. Beneath them, lemon yellow-lit windows illuminated a green alien city of eldritch non-Euclidian structures.

“Amazing,” said Leta. “An undersea city.”

Suspended midway down the wall of the dome was a square of four blinking emerald lights. The driver directed the craft toward the center of the beacons, let out a gurgle, then a bright green ring formed twixt them.

“What is that?” asked Leta.

“A force field of some type,” said Abby .

“It retains our atmosphere,” said Uhggwa.

The craft passed through the field from the green sea into a green gas and as if a veil was lifted, the dark and gloomy city illuminated to a bright emerald, and the dull lemon-yellow windows became brilliant.

“Behold,” said Uhggwa, “Ghrauk.”

~*~