Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A Peeper bumping into his lifepod seemed to be life’s way of saying, “Rise and shine, you miserable shit, you’ve got work to do.”

Shuuichi rose from the floor with a yawn, stretching his limbs as he gathered his thoughts on what he needed to do.

Since the Aurora exploded like his hopes and dreams yesterday and he didn’t quite feel like dying today, he needed a radiation suit, which was crafted with two fiber meshes and two lead chunks. He also had one half of the Seaglide fragment. If he wanted to get around anywhere that wasn’t in the immediate area of the Safe Shallows, he needed at least the Seaglide to be able to swim faster.

So radiation suit and Seaglide. That was on his agenda for today.

Shuuichi opened the storage kit, releasing a sigh of relief upon finding the materials needed for the radiation suit. He had already mined the lead out of sandstone outcrops scattered around the Safe Shallows during his search for the other items he had acquired. And he had too much fiber mesh from grabbing too many creepvine samples in his panicked frenzy to return to the Safe Shallows as soon as possible.

But the seaglide fragment? That could have gone anywhere! Sure, it couldn’t have landed too far from the ship, but the sheer randomness of where it could have been displaced made him want to curl up into a ball and give up.

He couldn’t. Not when he had come this far.

So Shuuichi equipped his mask, unlocked the hatch of his lifepod, and dove into the water.

The Kelp Forest, while still terrifying in its own way, had become a sort of mundane biome. He had gotten trapped in the creepvines more than he could have liked to admit, gone on too many creepvine seed cluster runs to count, and just generally grew accustomed to the creepiness of the biome.

Shuuichi smiled. Conquering fears one by one. That would be the key to survival.

His confidence was wiped clean away upon hearing an unfamiliar growl.

Oh, fuck. Oh no. What in the world was that?

Just swim. It was fine. The kelp forest was a peaceful biome. There was nothing in this biome that would hurt him.

Memories of Lifepod 3 flashed into his head, and he became too aware of the bullshit spewing through his mind.

Shuuichi stopped to look around him.

Creepvines were the main feature of the scenery, of course. Sunlight penetrated through the water’s surface, some blocked by the creepvine and others making its way to the seafloor. Peepers and other fish swam around him as if he wasn’t technically their predator. Scraps of metal salvage were laid at his feet.

He squinted at the shiny glint in the metal salvage before bending over to pick it up.

Shuuichi turned the item over curiously in his hand, humming as he noted the characteristics of the item. It was a long, white rod sharpened at one point and duller on the other. Judging by the texture and hardness, it was made of calcium or was at least strengthened by such a mineral.

Wait a second.

White. Calcium. Sharp.

This was a tooth.

Then a flash of green and purple emerged through the creepvine, its horrible, long teeth glinting in the dim lighting of the kelp forest. Its eyes were mean, holding more contempt than anything he had encountered so far. The purple ridges lined on top of its body was a clear warning to any would-be predators that it was not to be messed with.

And it had just spotted Shuuichi.

Shuuichi flailed in the water, his heart pounding as the creature bared its teeth and rushed towards him. His head spun as his body fought for survival.

It was quicker than him. He couldn’t escape. Fighting wasn’t an option; those teeth were sharp enough to bite through metal. What could he do?

And in his half-fried state, Shuuichi picked up the metal salvage at his feet and held it in front of him like a shield, bracing for impact.

A few eternities of silence later, the metal salvage was ripped from his hands, and all he could see was the gaping mouth of the beast clamping over the metal.

Shuuichi gulped and screwed his eyes shut, clasping his hands together. Oh god. This is where I die. Please let it be quick.

But death never came.

Shuuichi slowly opened his eyes, his jaw dropping upon seeing the creature shake its head, shaking the metal salvage along with it. It growled again, but the noise was much more subdued than the original predatory message sent just a moment ago. Seemingly satisfied, it dropped the metal salvage and disappeared into the creepvine.

What the fuck?

Shuuichi stayed frozen, too curious and frightened to move from his position.

The creature returned with new, shiny metal salvage wedged in between its teeth. It flailed its head for a bit before the metal came loose and landed in front of Shuuichi’s feet. It looked up at him expectantly, as if it was waiting for something.

And like an idiot, Shuuichi slowly reached its hand towards it head and pet the rubbery skin underneath.

The creature leaned into the touch and almost purred.

What even was Shuuichi’s life?

Shuuichi took a scan of the creature before handing it the metal salvage and swimming back to the surface. The creature was more than happy to take the offer and sit at the bottom of the ocean, happily gnawing on the metal. Its tail almost seemed to wave a goodbye at him.

Shuuichi found himself smiling and waving a goodbye as well.

The first thing he did when he breached the surface was read over the data he had scanned.

The creature was the stalker, one of the oldest species on the planet. It appeared to be attracted to titanium deposits, which explained its behavior just a moment ago, and… could be temporarily distracted with fish? He could have fed the stalker?

The way he saw it, the stalker, despite its menacing name, was just a dog. It was a sea dog, of course, but still a dog.

Shuuichi took a deep breath and waited for his heart to calm down before diving back into the kelp forest.

Encounters with stalkers were relatively peaceful afterwards. Shuuichi always kept a Peeper in his inventory, and the stalkers were content to exchange it for some metal salvage (as well as the teeth they would drop after “playing” with the metal).

Then the kelp forest grew green. Then greener. Then greener yet again.

Shuuichi frowned and checked his PDA. He was still in the kelp forest, according to it, but the area he was in was apparently the dense kelp forest. He supposed it made sense with the sheer number of creepvines that had managed to spook him while he was swimming, but—

Wait. There was something shining underneath the dark green.

Shuuichi’s heart surged. He pointed his scanner at it, reading the text the scanner returned to him. He grinned as a wave of relief washed over him.

His search for Seaglide parts was over.

The scan was about halfway completed before his attention was forced towards what looked like a four-winged butterfly with the creepiest grin Shuuichi had ever seen. Its faux wings fluttered in the water as he slowly swam closer and closer.

“It is your primary directive to swim closer to that beautiful creature,” the PDA said, “Swim closer. Swim closer now. It looks so friendly…”

Shuuichi closed about half the distance between them before his heart filled with dread.

Something was not right here. PDAs weren’t supposed to know about creatures he hadn’t scanned.

No thanks, I’m good, Shuuichi thought, kicking his legs to swim as far away from it as he could.

But the creature was mesmerizing in every sense of the word. An invisible force pulled him closer and closer despite his resistance.

The PDA chimed in again. “Do not resist. Don’t struggle… Go closer. ”

The PDA’s voice slowed as it neared the end of its sentence, and that was when Shuuichi could confirm something was horribly, horribly wrong.

“It’s evil,” Shuuichi mumbled under his breath, “You’re being manipulated. The PDA was manipulated. You need to get out.”

But even as the words escaped his mouth, he couldn’t help but want to go closer to the creature with the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.

Closer…

Closer…

Splat!

Shuuichi screamed at the sudden burning pain on its face, clawing at his mask while the creature ran away. The pain was short-lived, but the embarrassment was not.

How had he gotten so reckless? The ocean had made it clear since day one that it was not to be fucked with, and here Shuuichi was, frolicking around the dense kelp forest as if nothing bad could ever happen to him. Confidence was nice in an unfamiliar world, but overconfidence was a bitch.

And so was that creature. He would call it… Mesmer. Since it was so mesmerizing.

Very creative.

Ah, whatever. Whatever damage the creature had done could be repaired using the medical kit when he was back in his lifepod, and if it couldn’t, what would he have lost anyway? His life?

… He needed to stop thinking like that.

Shuuichi scanned the fragment before returning to his lifepod, his mind silent.

Yes!

Shuuichi cheered as the fabricator finished forming the final pieces of the Seaglide. He took the object in his hands, turning it over and drinking in every detail.

It was a relatively small vehicle with a blue flashlight built on top of its white body and two black arms on the sides for the user to grip. He toggled the map of his immediate surrounding area on and off, admiring the intelligence behind the design of it.

Then the radio buzzed, and everything stopped.

“Playing pre-recorded distress call,” the radio announced before switching to a more familiar voice.

“... This is Maki Harukawa.” Her soft voice suddenly grew rough, revealing her ire and making Shuuichi jump. “What the hell, guys? They didn’t warn us this might happen!” She sighed. The next few sentences reflected her normal detached tone. “My pod was almost crushed by the seamoth bay on the way down, and now I’m hanging on the edge of a cave system, and this annoying snake-thing is trying to eat through the hull.” Another sigh. “Come get me already.”

Maki… she had made it out of the Aurora?

The two weren’t too close, definitely not as close as she and Kaito or Kaede had been. But he was one of the only people she would talk to on the ship like a friend and not one of the annoying underlings she had to tolerate on a daily basis. The two were quiet and reserved, but that seemed to draw them towards each other more than it separated them. It was nice sharing a silence in a ship full of noises in a busy part of the galaxy that grew less and less busy, much to both of their happiness.

He remembered when she tried teaching him how to use a throwing knife. It ended up cutting off the lights in one part of the ship and them almost getting dropped off at the next planet, but it had been fun. More fun than he had ever had in his life.

Shuuichi played with the survival knife in his hands, absent-mindedly running his thumb along the back of the blade.

He had to find her.

Biome changes were scary, especially if the biome you were swimming in had plants the color of blood and unfamiliar fish lurking in every corner.

“Short range scans suggest this biome supports extensive biodiversity, and connects to a number of small cave networks,” the PDA chimed.

Before Shuuichi could roll his eyes and tell the PDA off in his head, he clung to the last part of the sentence.

Small cave networks. Maki had mentioned being on the edge of a cave system in her radio transmission. I must be close.

Then metal shimmered in the distance, and Shuuichi’s heart raced.

He kicked his feet as hard as he could, his legs straining and arms sore long before he reached the lifepod.

From the front, the lifepod seemed fine. The number 17 was clearly imprinted on it and hadn’t been disturbed like Lifepod 3. The red grass in the area even announced its presence, leaving at least a meter of space between the outer edges of the metal and the grass.

Shuuichi turned to see the side of the lifepod ripped out, and that was the moment everything inside him died.

There was no way anything inside that lifepod survived.

He froze in place, unable to will himself to move.

Maki wasn’t just a co-worker, she was a friend. She was the one who ranted to him about the idiots on the ship, glared at anyone who tried taking his seat in the cafeteria during those rare moments their lunch schedule lined up, routinely threatened superiors despite knowing the consequences, and so much more. But most importantly, she taught him his beliefs weren’t unfounded, that he was right in being so distrusting of Alterra. She was distrustful of the corporation herself, after all. She was the one who had made him feel as if he wasn’t a freak of nature or some kind of rebel that the Alterran people loved to look down upon. He was just human.

Shuuichi took a deep breath, blinking away the tears that had formed beneath his mask.

He needed to stay calm and investigate. For both him and Maki.

Shuuichi swam into the lifepod, the light of his Seaglide illuminating the area. Almost everything inside was completely busted, unrepairable even by the repair tool. A lone databox sat in the corner of the lifepod.

Shuuichi opened it curiously, turning his wrist to look at it front to back.

Seamoth fragment. If he wanted to go any deeper into the cave next to him, he needed the depth the vehicle could offer him. Hell, if he wanted to go anywhere past the kelp forest, he needed the Seamoth. Traveling to this biome had been more than cumbersome with just a Seaglide.

Actually, what biome was this?

A quick scan revealed the area as the Grassy Plateaus. So he supposed the red plants smothering the ground was supposed to be the grassy part? And the plateau formations were obvious…

Focus. You can’t figure out what happened to Maki if you can’t find the PDA.

Shuuichi looked around and around, his head spinning from his desperate attempts to find the PDA.

Could it have been buried? No, since the fish burrowing themselves into the sand around the lifepod hadn’t stumbled upon anything. Could Maki have taken it with her in her efforts to escape? Again, no. The evidence clearly pointed towards some kind of serpent being her cause of death. There was no explanation for the PDA being missing. Unless…

Shuuichi’s blood ran cold. He turned around, only now noticing the lone footprint that had survived just a few steps outside the lifepod.

Somebody had been here before him.