Tess yelped and helped him up. “What’s going on?”
Zephyr tested his limbs and nodded. “Thanks. I don’t know. Something strange is happening.”
Alexis was next down the stairs, wielding a flashlight. “Tess! There you are. What do we do?”
“How should I know?” said Tess. The flashlight dazzled her. “Where’s Garrett?”
“Still sick in his room.”
Tess cursed. “Zephyr, get him up, okay?”
“Aye aye!” The robot made for the stairs again, more slowly.
Before he could get anywhere, the platform rumbled again and tilted farther. Tess fell sideways and hit the concrete, yelping and cursing. Alexis was on the floor too. Both of them were shaking in the dark. Tess’ thoughts flashed through all the things that could go wrong and she realized: “The float cylinders!” The big concrete tubes beneath the platform gave it stability and power. Now the platform shuddered with each wave, making it hard to stand. Tess braced herself against a wall and froze. The platform was breaking; they were going to sink and drown. Alexis seemed terrified. Tess looked at her and at Zephyr, who struggled up the stairs. “Someone’s gotta look at the cylinders,” she said.
Tess shivered. She had to do it. She knew the machinery better than the others, and Garrett wasn’t ready. She grabbed Alexis’ arm and pulled her up, saying, “Come on — we’ve got work to do!”
No time to change back into wetsuits. Tess grabbed her floating toolbox, and she and Alexis helped each other into scuba gear. Tess tapped buttons on a computer to get what clues she could to the problem, and narrowed it down to a quarter or so of the stabilizers. Then they hurried outside.
The floor was tilted and slippery enough that they fell into the water. Pushing cold, dry air through her lungs like a bellows, Tess sank to where she could see the cylinders, and swam between them. Now she was in a forest of concrete trunks, or beneath a jaw whose teeth gnawed the water. The ceiling waved up and down. Tess tried to steady herself against a pillar and spot the machinery against their roof, the bottom of the platform. Alexis pointed. Tess nodded and made for one of the machinery junctions linking the pillars. This one looked fine, at least as seen through goggles. She tried to avoid getting bashed in the head by the platform’s bobbing. Dark down here. She pulled out a flashlight and swam, inspecting hardware. Alexis tried to get a second flashlight shining where she needed it. The waves and platform smacked both of them around, making Tess’ air tank clang.
There! Tess spotted a segment of pipes that had broken loose and had pieces wedging a crucial vent shut. Stupid design, she thought, figuring out in hindsight how it should have been built. Water yanked her away from the pipes. She was surprised to find Alexis supporting her, helping to whack the beams back into position and try to keep them there. The platform was bouncing less now, maybe. She turned, trying to find the way out, and got slammed against the ceiling. Her mask jabbed her in the face and she was tumbling, kicking at something that caught her leg and was going to trap her down there, but it was only Alexis. Tess tried to slow her breathing. Over there was the way out, and at worst any path through the forest of pillars would lead them out eventually.
Waves separated them. The water washed down and threw Tess into blackness somewhere, then bruised her leg against concrete. She scrambled for her flashlight but it was gone. She was inside one of the cylinders, and it was flooding. As she shivered, she couldn’t get a good breath from her mouthpiece. Eyes wide, she slapped at it and only hurt her teeth. She and Alexis hadn’t refilled the air tanks. They weren’t prepared. Now there was nothing she could do.
The water pulled her down again, leaving air in the float cylinder like there was supposed to be. Tess coughed and breathed and there came a moment when she could use the current to escape, maybe dying on the way out, or stay in the refuge of the concrete cage. She found herself clawing at the walls, shoving herself out to the open water. Fighting to see the sky again. She burst up through the ocean and yanked her mouthpiece out, gasping and coughing miserably.
“Tess!” Zephyr was bobbing in the water. “What are you doing? Garrett’s out looking for you!”
The storm was on them now, pelting them with rain and whipping their voices away, blowing hair in her eyes. The day seemed darker than any she’d ever seen at home. “Huh?” Tess said when she had air in her lungs again. Waves slashed at her face. “Where’s Alexis?”
“I don’t know. We need to take shelter!”
Alexis could be trapped down there. Tess looked around wildly and saw Alexis splashing towards them, thrown back and forth by waves. Tess called out and met her partway, then threw one arm around her. “Come on!”
They swam for the platform. Tess spotted the double lamps of the dock entrance and Zephyr helped as a floating thing to lean on. They were going to make it.
“Stop,” said Alexis. “We’re here. Careful.”
The outer ledge, the dock, loomed in front of them. Current threw Tess forward and she raised one arm to shield herself from the impact. She hit the rubbery bumper around the ledge, next to the little ladder. Her knees scraped concrete. The only thing to do was claw at anything in sight until her hands found the ladder and hurled her up with a wave to land on the soaked ledge. She was in front of the stairs and the North Tower door. Someone was yelling and she had a face full of snot and seawater and hair, with scuba gear on her back threatening to make her fall over. Wrinkled fingers yanked at a metal door that still wouldn’t budge.
Alexis and Zephyr were there when Tess turned around. Alexis clutched the ladder and the waves were sucking backwards now. Tess crouched to flail for them, trying to catch either of them. Zephyr’s arm jerked to grab her but missed. Finally Tess’ hand met Alexis’. Tess staggered backward harder than she thought possible, pulling her and letting her pull Zephyr.
A wave slammed over them and knocked Tess onto her back on the wet concrete. The back of her neck hit the valves of her dive gear, though she curled sideways to avoid being speared on them. She rolled to all fours in time to see — empty water.
“Zephyr! Alexis!” Any moment now one of them would lay a hand on her shoulder. Any moment now.
Any moment now another wave would take her too.
Tess threw herself onto the staircase above the worst of the waves, staring down for any sign, any sound of them. Maybe she could dive in and find them. There was still a chance. But her body wouldn’t move in that direction. It knew what would happen if she did. While vivid images of being smashed by concrete teeth flashed before her, she found herself scrambling up to the deck with ragged breaths. She was yelling for Garrett, for anybody.
Nobody in the deckhouse. The world was empty. When she staggered down into the platform, she found the air compressor unattended and three tanks missing. Her, Alexis, and Garrett. He was out there too! She backed away and saw the gun on the floor. For a moment she was too battered into incomprehension to have any idea what it was.
Flare gun. Tess snatched it, then the nearby bag of flares. She staggered back upstairs to look for anyone in the world. With the wind’s help she nearly pitched herself over the platform’s edge. She grabbed the railing and saw Garrett way below in a raft. He was scouting the water around the wrong side of the platform. She yelled uselessly into the gale. The sea might grab him too! She’d see one wave and then the raft would be gone and she’d be stuck with nobody here, no communications, no ship (where was Constellation?), nothing. With another yell she fired the flare gun into the hurricane, took out another flare and did it again. Magnesium flame slashed the clouds over Castor. He would see; he had to see. She fired a third and a fourth and watched the wind play cat’s-cradle with the flaming trails.