\nThe sea shook late in the afternoon, just as Kalen was finishing his shift. At first he thought the freighter had run aground, but they were miles from land in the empty Pacific. Stacks of Cubacon brand intermodal containers rattled like mad, and Kalen nearly lost his footing as he darted to tighten the safety straps. Waves drenched his back and the deck resounded with groans of plastic.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cKeep them steady!\u201d Mr. Gupta, one of the ship\u2019s supers, stood against the railing, well out of the way of the teetering Cubes.\n<\/p>\n
\nA cable snapped on one of the stacks. Kalen darted over to secure it. The sea pitched and shuddered and the Cubes started to tip.\n<\/p>\n
\nThen the rumbling settled. The waves returned to their usual sway beneath the freighter, and all was quiet on the Alphacorp Seaway.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThat was a big one,\u201d said Mr. Gupta. He waved a hand at the towers of containers. \u201cGet them all inspected. Thoroughly.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nKalen sighed. He\u2019d never gotten used to earthquakes at sea. They had been more frequent lately, and this one could not have had worse timing. He had already checked the Cubes four times today, but the company required they be inspected from scratch any time there was a weather event, and so he began his rounds all over again.\n<\/p>\n
\nHe mounted a hydraulic ladder and raised himself to the top of a stack, examining the Cubes one at a time. The sun cast long rectangular shadows across the deck. He worked quickly, with practiced efficiency, tugging cables and scanning the multicolored plastic casings.\n<\/p>\n
\nIt took three hours to get to the bottom of the final stack. One more Cube to go and he could finally call it a day. This one was light blue and filled with rice. He tested the security cables by hand, then took out his U-Pad and paced in a circle, running an autoscan for structural integrity. Everything looked good until he rounded the third corner. The device flashed red and squawked at him.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWARNING. Potential compromise detected.\u201d A blinking light appeared on the screen, indicating a small puncture on the top of the Cube.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou\u2019re kidding.\u201d Kalen scowled at the big blue container. It was the lowest in a stack of seven; he would need to undo all the cables and get on the crane and move every single one to check on the puncture. It was like a prank, if scanning programs could do pranks.\n<\/p>\n
\nHe checked over his shoulder to make sure there were no supers around. The U-Pad blinked and he sneered at it. \u201cNope. Not today.\u201d He typed in an override code. The warning disappeared. He made a mental note to double check this one tomorrow, just in case.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nKalen shuffled through row after row of stacked plastic Cubes on his way to the stern. Almost all of them contained foodstuffs. Alphacorp owned most of the restaurants in California and most of the agriculture in China, and a long, narrow strip of ocean connecting the two. The waters north and south of the Seaway were owned by seafood conglomerates, or by energy companies who used them for oil exploration and deep-sea fracking. These days every liter of ocean was owned by somebody, but Kalen had always been with Alphacorp, so even though he\u2019d been working the freighters for the better part of two decades, he\u2019d only seen a tiny sliver of the Pacific. It didn\u2019t bother him much. He figured it all looked about the same.\n<\/p>\n
\nHe emerged from the forest of Cubes and slipped behind the bridge. The stern had become an unofficial employee lounge, and every day was a silent contest to see who could make it there first. Of course, you didn\u2019t want to be too<\/em> early or the supers might think you were cutting corners.\n<\/p>\n \nTo his surprise, he wasn\u2019t the first one done today. One of his coworkers sat in the sun, with her legs straddling the edge of the deck and a fishing pole in her hands. Her name was Adri. She had sunburnt shoulders and a youngish face and she was new on the ship, maybe on her second or third run. He was impressed. Not many had the balls to go fishing in broad daylight.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYou\u2019re off early today,\u201d he said as he approached. Next to the railing was a big cooler and he reached inside and opened a can of Alpha brand beer. Adri made a grabbing motion at the cooler and he handed her a can.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThanks,\u201d she said. \u201cI took a page from your playbook and skimmed my last round. That quake was big, but not too big.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNice. Yeah, those suckers aren\u2019t going anywhere.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYou\u2019re quite the Cube whisperer, huh?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNot for much longer, thank God.\u201d Kalen sat on the cooler. \u201cFew more trips and I\u2019ll have enough saved to start my farm.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nAdri tugged on her fishing pole. \u201cGonna put on your land legs for a while?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen smirked. \u201cNot really. I\u2019m thinking oysters. They got some decent size water plots for lease up the Oregon coast. Not too expensive, either.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cAren\u2019t oysters proprietary?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYeah. Walton\u2019s got the patent, but you can lease a batch if you start a franchise.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYou must have saved a lot.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen took a gulp of beer. \u201cBeen doing this shit since I was twelve. I better have.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cJesus. If I\u2019m here one<\/em> more year I\u2019ll drown mys\u2014hey!\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nThe tip of Adri\u2019s pole bent sharply down, slacked a bit, then dipped even harder. She sprang to her feet, eyes wide. Kalen smiled as she started reeling.\n<\/p>\n \nWhatever Adri had caught was a real fighter, but so was she. She planted her feet and used the railing as leverage. Kalen stood next to her and watched where the line pierced the water, about eight meters below.\n<\/p>\n \nThe fight took at least ten minutes, and Adri was sweating by the time they saw splashes.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cGive me a hand, will you?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen took the pole and held it steady while she pulled up the line hand-over-hand. Something long, fat and green emerged.\n<\/p>\n \nWhen they got the fish over the railing Adri was panting, and smiling wider with each pained exhale. It was a gorgeous mahi-mahi, shimmering green with cobalt blue spots matching its dorsal fin. It slapped the deck with its tail while Adri dug out the hook.\n<\/p>\n \nKalen took out his U-Pad. \u201cDo you want a picture?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nAdri gave him a puzzled look. \u201cAre you serious? Won\u2019t they see?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen smirked. \u201cDon\u2019t worry. I\u2019ve got all that shit disabled. Quick, before one of the supers sees.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nShe grabbed the fish under the tail and posed in front of the guardrail, smiling ear to ear. Kalen opened the U-Pad\u2019s camera. The sun was shining at the perfect angle and Adri\u2019s beaming face glowed almost as much as the mahi. It reminded him of himself when he was younger, clueless and carefree, just happy to be out on the water.\n<\/p>\n \nHe snapped the photo. A second later, the screen went red and a tone like a police siren blasted through the air, followed by a robotic female voice coming from both Kalen\u2019s and Adri\u2019s U-Pads simultaneously.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cALERT. The Pacific Ocean stock of Coryphaena hippurus<\/em> is the property of Walton Seafoods, Inc., under Patent #W98FWJ. A fine for this violation has been assessed to the offending accounts. Immediately submit documentation of the product\u2019s safe and uninjured return to the environment in order to avoid additional charges.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nAdri almost dropped the fish in shock. \u201cWhat the hell?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen smacked his screen with the back of his hand. \u201cThese fucking things.\u201d Apparently he hadn\u2019t hacked his device\u2019s scanners as well as he\u2019d thought. He felt like an idiot.\n<\/p>\n \nHe shook his head. \u201cI\u2019m sorry. This last software update is fucking nuts.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nAdri looked scared. \u201cHow bad is the fine?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen was afraid to check. \u201cDon\u2019t worry. I\u2019ll take care of it. Here, let me film you throwing him back.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nThe mahi quivered in Adri\u2019s hands. She gave it a forlorn glance. \u201cForgive me, my love. It just wasn\u2019t meant to be.\u201d Kalen hit record and she chucked the fish over the railing. It hit the water with a smack and disappeared.\n<\/p>\n \n \nAt dinner, the freighter was cruising into Oahu to refuel, and Adri was still talking about the mahi.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYou really shouldn\u2019t have to pay my fine,\u201d she repeated as they stood in line at the mess hall. \u201cI\u2019m the one who was breaking the rules.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cAnd I\u2019m the one who got you snitched on. It\u2019s my fault. You were probably being careful to watch for patrols, too,\u201d he said, referring to the contracted security vessels that patrolled the shipping routes, making sure everyone\u2019s property rights were enforced.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cBut what about your savings?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cForget it. I\u2019ve been doing this for twenty years. What\u2019s a couple extra trips before I\u2019m out of here forever? I can handle it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nThe line shifted forward. There were about a hundred crewmembers aboard, including supers and engineers and administrative personnel. The mess hall was always crowded to capacity, and sometimes Alphacorp failed to stock enough food for the whole trip, at which point they would jack up the price to cut down on demand. Now was one of those times.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cAt least let me buy your dinner. Then we can be even.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen gave a slow nod. \u201cAll right. Deal.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nDinner was rice and canned spinach and refried beans and overcooked chicken teriyaki, with a chocolate chip cookie for desert. Kalen felt guilty about having Adri buy him a full meal, especially since the ship was running low on cookies and they were now going for ninety bucks a piece. One of the ways he\u2019d saved up for the farm was by not eating so much on these trips.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cIt\u2019s funny,\u201d Adri said with a mouthful of beans. \u201cWe work on this ship for weeks at a time, all for a paycheck from Alphacorp, which we then use to buy dinner and snacks and beer from them. It\u2019s almost like they\u2019re selling this stuff to themselves.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen stabbed at a piece of chicken. \u201cYeah. Almost.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cI feel like there should be a rule against that kind of thing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen scoffed. He vaguely recalled from school that the government used to make those kinds of rules, rules about which companies owned what, and how they should treat their employees, and other things. Things must have been very complicated then.\n<\/p>\n \nSomeone appeared next to the table and cleared their throat, very loudly and wetly. Kalen turned to face Mr. Gupta. The super was younger than Kalen by about ten years, and was also his superior by several ranks, something he had never been able to figure out.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cKalen Fletcher,\u201d he said, \u201cand Adriana Mikhailov.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nAdri stopped chewing.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWould one of you care to explain yourselves?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nThere was a tense pause.\n<\/p>\n \nKalen took a deep breath. \u201cAll right. I was born in San Pedro in 2092. My dad was a freighterman, and my mom, well, she died before I can remember. All I ever wanted was to work on a boat like my old man. I finished school in \u201904 and applied to Alphacorp, where I have remained dutifully employed as a deck inspector ever since. Now, as to my hobbies and interests\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cDon\u2019t get smart with me.\u201d Mr. Gupta jabbed a finger at Kalen. \u201cI just got off a call with Walton Seafoods. Apparently the two of you were cited this evening for theft of Walton property. Cited while working aboard an Alphacorp vessel! Do you have any idea how many apologies and assurances I had to make on that phone call?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen shrugged. \u201cWe\u2019ve never had trouble from fishing before.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cBecause you never got caught.\u201d Gupta leaned over the table, jerking his gaze back and forth between Kalen and Adri. \u201cYou violated another company\u2019s property rights while on official Alphacorp business. Do you realize this is how turf wars start? Do you really think we can defend ourselves from an all-out seafood liberation campaign?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nAdri frowned. \u201cMr. Gupta, it was just a fish\u2026\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cBacktalk me again and I\u2019ll have you indentured.\u201d He ran a hand through his slicked-back hair. Kalen looked him dead in the eyes, his annoyance turning quickly to fear. It was not unheard of for companies to punish their workers by rebranding them as debtors. That would mean unlimited work hours with no pay, sometimes for weeks, sometimes years. It was not a threat made lightly. To a newcomer like Adri it was a cruel thing to even mention.\n<\/p>\n \nOnce Mr. Gupta was satisfied that Kalen and Adri were adequately speechless, he stood up straight and did his horrible throat clear again. \u201cI\u2019m having both of you docked the entirety of your wages for this trip, in addition to whatever fines Walton has rightly imposed,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ll be issuing a moratorium on all on-deck congregation, for the time being.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYou\u2019re kidding.\u201d Kalen\u2019s mouth hung open. \u201cNobody else did anything wrong. You can\u2019t take the stern away. That\u2019s all they\u2019ve got.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWell, they have you to thank.\u201d He turned and made off for the supers\u2019 table in the far corner of the hall.\n<\/p>\n \nKalen jammed his fork into the chicken and twisted up a little cyclone of stale meat. Several of his coworkers were eyeing him suspiciously from other tables. All he could think about was how ready he was to finally start his farm. It was going to take longer, now, at least two more trips than he\u2019d figured before this mahi debacle. But it was coming. He\u2019d finally be working for himself after twenty long years, and the Mr. Guptas of the world could choke on their chicken for all he cared.\n<\/p>\n \nIt took him a couple minutes to realize Adri was crying.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cHey,\u201d he whispered, knowing people were watching and hoping they hadn\u2019t heard what Mr. Gupta had said about the stern. \u201cHey, knock it off. You\u2019re all right.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nShe wiped her eyes and shook her head.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cSeriously. I\u2019ve been chewed out worse. It blows over, always does.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNo. I\u2019m not alright.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nShe looked up, eyes red. \u201cI don\u2019t have savings like you do. I needed the money from this trip to pay for my\u2026\u201d She sniffed loudly. \u201cMy mom\u2019s really sick.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen started to respond, but the words got caught in his throat. He thought of his own mom, who he\u2019d never met because she\u2019d been sick and his dad hadn\u2019t been able to afford her treatment. He remembered his dad explaining it, saying \u201cIt was either let her go, or saddle the family with more debt than you could hope to pay back in your lifetime. It was either a wife in heaven or a son in debtor\u2019s prison. I made my choice.\u201d<\/em> He had never thought too hard about it, but now he couldn\u2019t get it out of his head.\n<\/p>\n \nHe grabbed Adri\u2019s hand. \u201cYou know what? Fuck Alphacorp. Come work for me in Oregon. I\u2019ve got almost enough for the farm already, and I\u2019ll get a loan for the rest. I\u2019ll pay you whatever you need for your mom.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nShe looked at him like he was crazy, but she stopped crying. \u201cYou\u2014are you serious?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nHe glanced around the crowded mess hall, at the leering eyes of his coworkers, at the prices on the cafeteria menu, the collar-shirted supers at their special table. \u201cYeah. Fuck yeah I\u2019m serious.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nHe sat back and reached for the U-Pad on his hip. \u201cI wonder how bad the Walton fine is, anyway.\u201d He swiped to his bank account and started entering his password.\n<\/p>\n \nBefore he entered the last digit, the screen flashed red and started screaming.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cALERT.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYeah, yeah, I know, I have a fine.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cALERT.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWait, what the hell?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cALERT.\u201d the U-Pad blasted again, over and over. Soon the noise was coming from every device in the mess hall, echoing like a chorus of panicked robots.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cALERT. EMERGENCY. An earthquake of magnitude 9.6 and associated underwater landslide have been detected with an epicenter in the PacifiGas Deepwater Field. All persons and vessels near the coast should make immediate tsunami preparations. REPEAT. All persons and vessels near the coast should make immediate tsunami preparations.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n \nFor approximately one second there was silence, followed by a cacophony of clattering silverware and people pushing back chairs and shouting. All the supers stood up around their table. Mr. Gupta turned to face the hall with both palms in the air.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cEveryone!\u201d he shouted. \u201cRemain calm. Tidal waves pose no danger to us. Please return to your meals or proceed to your cabins in an orderly\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNo!\u201d One of the ship\u2019s engineers strode across the hall, waving his U-Pad in the air with the map open. \u201cLook. We are a mile and a half from Oahu. It\u2019s not ten meters deep here. Now look where the wave is coming from. It will crush us!\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cEveryone sit down!\u201d yelled Mr. Gupta.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cEveryone abandon ship!\u201d yelled the engineer.\n<\/p>\n \nThe mess hall erupted. About half the employees returned nervously to their seats, staring at their U-Pads or looking to the supers for orders. The other half scattered like someone kicked over an anthill. They scrambled to their cabins or up onto the maindeck, pushing and grunting and screaming.\n<\/p>\n \nKalen found himself somewhere in between. He didn\u2019t follow the order to sit, but he didn\u2019t run either. He\u2019d never worried about a wave before. They were usually in deep water and the freighter was too big to capsize. But they\u2019d never been close to shore during a tsunami warning. And a 9.6? Was it bad enough he should do something, or was it so bad there was nothing to be done? He thought about Oregon, his savings, his mom, his life. Did 9.6 mean none of that would ever matter?\n<\/p>\n \nHe felt a hand around his wrist.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe have to go,\u201d Adri said. \u201cNow.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cGo where?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cOn deck. Lifejackets. Come on.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nShe pulled him away from the table, through the mess of scattering crewmen and spilled dishes, to the stairway leading from the mess to the bridge. They elbowed their way through the crowd and out onto the deck. The ship cruised over calm ocean, the Cubes sat still in their stacks, Oahu was a green blur off the bow, the sun hung low and orange over the western sky.\n<\/p>\n \nBut there was something else in the west, something Kalen barely noticed at first. The ocean was too high. The horizon was ever so slightly raised in the distance, off the port side compared to starboard. A ridge of sea standing above the rest, like hair on an angry dog\u2019s back. And it was getting closer.\n<\/p>\n \nAdri led him across the deck to the maintenance superstructure near the midship. It was pure chaos. A dozen employees stood huddled together with puffy orange lifejackets around their necks. All of them looked terrified. At least two dozen more surrounded them, screaming and shouting and drawing in closer.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWhere are the rest?\u201d someone demanded.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYou took them all.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThese were the only ones. There must be more in the cabins.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe checked the cabins!\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cI\u2019ll kill you!\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nKalen pulled back on Adri before they got too close to the crowd. She turned to him, horror in her eyes.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNo more lifejackets,\u201d he muttered.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe ship doesn\u2019t have enough?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cIt has enough,\u201d said Kalen through his teeth. \u201cEnough for the supers.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nAdri\u2019s gaze drifted over Kalen\u2019s shoulder. \u201cOh my God.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nHe turned around.\n<\/p>\n \nThe ridge of ocean was now a mountain. It soared upward, overtaking the sun. Its approach was bizarrely slow, seeming to slow as it grew taller, and at the same time the ship sank beneath it, as though the sea was digging a hole in itself to bury them in.\n<\/p>\n \nHis eyes fell to the bridge. A different crowd had gathered there. They had jackets on, and they were jumping overboard.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNo.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nHe started to walk, then run, then sprint across the deck. As he suspected, the crowd was all supers. He caught up to them just as the last few were hauling themselves over the side.\n<\/p>\n \nMr. Gupta was climbing over the beer cooler onto the railing. Kalen felt a surge of anger. He grabbed him by the collar and yanked him hard.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cEveryone remain calm, huh?\u201d He dug a knee into Gupta\u2019s stomach.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cGet your hands off me!\u201d Gupta kicked and squirmed while Kalen struggled to unclip the lifejacket. A shadow came over them. The shadow of the wave. He smacked Gupta aside the head and ripped the jacket off of him.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cGive it back!\u201d cried Gupta, spitting out blood.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYou don\u2019t need it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nHe hit Gupta again and he fell still.\n<\/p>\n \nKalen turned to face Adri, who had rushed up behind him. The other supers had all pitched into the water and most of the employees were jumping over too, lifejacket or no.\n<\/p>\n \nHe handed her the jacket. \u201cPut this on.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cWhat about\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNow!\u201d He pulled Adri\u2019s arms through the jacket himself and clipped it shut. She hugged him and started to say something, but the shadow over his shoulder stole her eyes and the words vanished from her mouth. Kalen grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her over the railing. He waited just long enough to see her head pop above the water before turning to face the wave.\n<\/p>\n \nEveryone had stopped shouting. The sea drew up under the ship\u2019s stern, and Cubes started to shake in their straps. Kalen could not move, he could not scream, he could not even breathe. All he could do was stare at the wave. No, this was not a wave. This was the blue mouth of death. This was the edge of the universe. This was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.\n<\/p>\n \nIt swallowed him.\n<\/p>\n \n \nWhen he awoke he was floating.\n<\/p>\n \nHe sputtered and coughed and wretched and could not believe he was able to think, much less open his eyes, much less breathe. He was lying on his back on top of a Cube. It seemed he\u2019d managed to get his arm under one of the security straps when the ship turned over. Now the Cube bobbed on the surface like a life raft. That, or the afterlife had a bad sense of humor.\n<\/p>\n \nHe sat up and waited for his head to stop spinning, then glanced around to get his bearings. It was nighttime and the sea was quiet. The sky was blistered with stars, thick and shimmering. No sign of land, or life, or other floating objects anywhere. He was alone.\n<\/p>\n \nAlmost instinctively, he reached for his hip. His U-Pad was still there. He tapped the screen and it turned on.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNo way.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nHe wanted to laugh. He wanted to kiss it and lift it over his head and thank God in Heaven for the miracle of waterproofing. But that could wait. He was alive, but he was stuck, and who knew how far from shore.\n<\/p>\n \nHe also had a sense that the Cube was sinking. It was hard to tell in the dark, but the far end of it was lower than the end he was sitting on.\n<\/p>\n \nHe shone the light of the U-Pad downward. His heart sank into his gut when he recognized the Cube. It was blue and labeled for rice. The Cube from the end of his shift. The Cube with a puncture he hadn\u2019t fixed. With each bob the ocean seemed to reach just the slightest bit closer. And if he concentrated he could hear a faint squelching sound, like someone had washed their hands in a clogged sink.\n<\/p>\n \nHe swiped to the map function on the U-Pad. It still showed his location off the coast of Oahu, which must have been where it\u2019d lost its signal. He switched to satellite data.\n<\/p>\n \nThe device squawked. \u201cWARNING. No wireless network detected. Satellite communication will incur additional charges. Would you like to proceed?\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cYes, goddammit.\u201d His voice was hoarse. The U-Pad flashed the word LOADING for a long time. Water seemed to creep forward over the far end of the Cube, overtaking it bit by bit. He thought about Adri while he waited. He hoped she had survived somehow. He hoped the supers had all drowned.\n<\/p>\n \nThe device gave a quick beep and then the screen turned blue. He thought it was a glitch, then realized it was doing exactly what it should do. It had centered on his current location. He zoomed out with trembling fingers. \u201cNo.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nBlue. All blue. The only text on the screen said Pacific Ocean.<\/em> Oahu was two hundred miles south. How was that possible? How long had he been out for?\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cNo, no, no.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nHis spine chilled with panic. He looked up at the clear, starry sky, and across the endless sea. He started to sweat, even though he was cold and wet. Then he remembered something. A few months back he\u2019d modified his U-Pad\u2019s map to show the locations of other devices in range. It was something the supers used to tell where people were on the ship, but he\u2019d managed to unlock it for himself in case he needed to avoid them.\n<\/p>\n \nHe had to find Adri. He had to try, even if it was impossible, even if he wasn\u2019t sure why. Maybe something to do with the mahi incident, or her mom, or his own mom. Maybe something to do with the wave and how big it was.\n<\/p>\n \nHe punched in the code and started the search. \u201cCome on.\u201d The sea was near to swallowing the far end of the cube, its gentle waves rolling over the blue plastic. Searching for devices,<\/em> blinked the U-Pad.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cCome on.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nLittle bubbles appeared on the map. A scattering of tiny circular employee photos spread all over the ocean, with a hub on land in Oahu. Some had survived, or at least their devices had. Mostly supers, he noticed, but some of his co-workers too. He didn\u2019t see Gupta\u2019s photo anywhere, which brought him some small comfort.\n<\/p>\n \nHe also didn\u2019t see Adri. He zoomed all around the Hawaiian Islands, searching for her to no avail, heart racing. The Cube made a horrible sucking sound.\n<\/p>\n \nHe was close to smashing the device over his knee when he saw her. Her bubble was even farther from land than his was, and the photo was greyed out, indicating her U-Pad had stopped transmitting a signal. His heart sank. He\u2019d failed her. For all his efforts to get her overboard with a life jacket, she\u2019d been washed hopelessly away, swallowed and spat out by the tsunami in the empty blue hell of the North Pacific.\n<\/p>\n \nThen he noticed something: a tiny speck, almost covered by Adri\u2019s location bubble. He zoomed in to find a thin brown ring in all the blue.\n<\/p>\n \nLand. An atoll, about fifty miles northwest of him. That\u2019s where Adri was, or at least where she had been when her U-Pad died. The atoll was so small and remote it didn\u2019t even have a name. It was closer than Hawaii was, but he still had no way of getting there.\n<\/p>\n \nOr did he?\n<\/p>\n \nAlmost without thinking, he dunked the U-Pad into the water and paddled. It was hard to tell if the Cube moved. He slid his legs under the safety strap, like in a kayak, and rowed on either side. The Cube inched forward, but only slightly. By the time he gained any momentum at all his arms were sore. The Cube gurgled as water sputtered into the puncture, bit by bit.\n<\/p>\n \nBut he kept going. He didn\u2019t even know if she was alive, but he knew he would keep rowing until his arms gave out or the Cube went all the way under. He would swim if he had to, no matter how cold it was, no matter how far, until he found her or the ocean claimed its due.\n<\/p>\n \nThe cold sea kissed his legs and the Cube sank slowly beneath him, while he rowed with all his might toward Adri, under the stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The sea shook late in the afternoon, just as Kalen was finishing his shift. At first he thought the freighter had run aground, but they were miles from land in the empty Pacific. Stacks of Cubacon brand intermodal containers rattled like mad, and Kalen nearly lost his footing as he darted to tighten the safety …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106947,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19981],"tags":[19982],"class_list":["post-137766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-tcl-34-winter-2020","tag-the-colored-lens-34-winter-2020","entry entry-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/106947"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137767,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137766\/revisions\/137767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloredlens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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