I had loved her that much.
Hell, I was pretty sure I still loved her, even though I now hated her also.
Even with the nanites trying to settle my stomach, I felt sick. But I had to put it all out of my mind for the time being, and get the lay of the land—whatever it is I’d now be facing.
I gathered my courage, opened my eyes, and looked up.
The smiling face of Nick Nicola was staring back at me. “It’s about time, mate,” he said good-naturedly from a chair overlooking my bed.
I surveyed my surroundings and discovered I was inside what looked to be a very high-tech hospital room. “Where am I?” I asked.
“On an underwater shelf in the Pacific. More specifically, in a room in Sentinel’s small medical wing.” He paused. “We think of it more as a sickbay than a hospital.”
I didn’t reply.
“I know it’s been at least twenty-four hours since you’ve eaten,” said the captain, “so I’ll make sure food is on the way.”
“Thanks,” I said. “And does your sickbay have a bathroom?”
Nicola laughed. “I guess eating isn’t the only thing you haven’t been doing lately.”
I lifted myself from the bed, proceeded to use the bathroom, and then returned, this time sitting on the edge of the mattress facing my host. “Ready to tell me your real name?”
“Sure,” said the captain with a grin. “But that doesn’t mean we’re married or anything.”
I laughed.
“Turns out my real first name is the same as yours—Jason.”
“I’ll be damned,” I said. “Is that why you keep saving my life?” I added wryly. “Because we share a name?”
“That’s exactly right, mate,” he replied affably. “If you’d have been named Niles I’d have killed you myself.” He held out a hand. “I’m Jason. Jason Barcelo.”
“Nice to meet you, Jason Barcelo.”
“Actually, like I told you back in Australia, you should still call me Nick. I haven’t used my real name in years, even within my own organization. And why confuse yourself.”
I nodded. “Nick it is.”
“So . . . Jason,” he said, gesturing toward my head, which was no longer bandaged—or injured. “It appears you were holding out on me during our previous discussion.”
“Would you believe that I’ve always healed really fast?”
“No. But I would believe that you have as many nanites in your veins as Tessa.”
“Yeah, I can see how you might come to that conclusion,” I said with a smile. “I would have told you about them last time we were together, but you seemed to be in a big hurry. I didn’t want to burden you with too many details.”
“Very thoughtful of you,” replied Nick in amusement. “Bottom line, though, is that you were barely holding on to life when we were flying here. Now, just sixteen hours later, you don’t have a bloody scratch on you. The nanites are more effective than I thought.”
“Apparently so,” I replied.
“Although I have to say I’m getting used to the wonders of alien technology. So it takes a lot to impress me.” He paused. “Speaking of which.” He turned away from me and spoke into his comm, ordering the base’s AI to put the room into what he called transparent mode.
Three of the room’s four walls vanished.
I gasped, and not just because it seemed as if nothing was holding the ocean at bay. I gasped mostly because of the view, which would impress anyone, regardless of how jaded by tech they might be.
We were on a shelf in the Pacific Ocean, indeed. I just didn’t realize it would be a shelf in such relatively shallow water. Or that we would be facing an epic coral reef with a spectacular view of enough diverse and brilliantly colored marine life to dazzle a lifelong scuba enthusiast.
The color palette of the coral itself was as vivid and varied as I had ever seen, a rainbow of sometimes neon colors as beautiful as anything on Earth, without even counting the thousands upon thousands of breathtaking marine creatures, be they fish, sharks, turtles, manta rays, seahorses, jellyfish, or a glorious variety of other examples of the artistry of nature.
Beyond the vast wall of coral was an even vaster volcanic island, which had just become fully submerged beneath the waves, probably only a hundred years or so before, giving me a perfect view of a glorious atoll.
An atoll was formed when a reef grew in shallow water around an island rather than near a continent. The reef I was viewing had probably begun growing before mankind walked the Earth, eventually forming an elaborate and breathtaking structure. The island had then proceeded to slowly sink into the sea over millions of years. This left the mesmerizing sight of a sunken volcanic island playing the part of a skull, while the coral reef ringed it like an underwater crown of thorns.
I knew everything there was to know about every step of atoll formation. What’s more, if I focused on a given coral or sea creature, I knew enough about each to fill an encyclopedia.
I gasped a second time as I realized a sobering little detail: I had previously known nothing about the marine world. I had never used an atoll in a novel, and just a few days earlier I couldn’t have defined the word if my life had depended on it.
The nanites were once again acting as a second brain, augmenting my knowledge effortlessly. It was truly an amazing feature of an amazing technology.
I continued to ogle the most magnificent visual spectacle I had ever seen for almost a minute while the captain waited patiently.