//------------------------------// // 6: Undersea // Story: Loony // by totallynotabrony //------------------------------// It was a long wait before the Shade-designated bomb squad finished surreptitiously clearing the area.  The precaution was not frivolous. When somepony was threatening to kill you, it wasn’t a good idea to make it any easier for them. Arc and Roxy had spent the past few hours in their house, staying away from windows.  It reminded Arc of being in a flimsy bunker.  Roxy felt like she was in a cage. The bomb squad knocked on the back door, signaling that the job was done.  After checking through the window, Arc opened the door to meet them. “No bomb,” reported the leader, who was a rather short creature with claws and angular features.  He and the rest of the crew were gremlins.  They’d worked carefully, not wanting to excite the neighbors should they be spotted, although not even Roxy’s senses had detected them while they worked. “Thanks for checking,” said Arc. “No problem.  Finding things and taking them apart is what we do.  Call us if you ever need anything else.”  The group of them departed, disappearing into the night without using a car or any other visible means of transportation. Now that the house was clear, Roxy made a call on her phone.  It was clear that the house phone was known to Sisal, and if she knew Arc’s name his cell might be known as well. Although that didn’t mean Roxy’s phone hadn’t also been compromised, it might have been marginally less likely.  At any rate the message she was passing along was coded. Proficient and Harv arrived within a few minutes, driving the same government car they'd made use of before.  Their residences had also been searched and cleared, although neither had been personally called by Sisal. Arc and Roxy had each packed night bags and got in the car. They didn’t know where they would be taken. The talk while driving was light.  With the incident, they all realized that a long night probably awaited them.  How it would turn out was anypony’s guess. In the back seat, Arc and Roxy’s hooves slid closer together.  The two of them shared a glance and then intertwined fetlocks.  The best way to get through this was to support each other. In a few minutes, the car arrived at the Shade headquarters.  As both Arc and Roxy went through the process of being blooded-in, Arc noticed that the guards on duty seemed to be exactly the same ones who were always there in the daytime.  He didn’t have time to ponder that, however, as he and his wife were escorted down the hallway to a room where neither of them had ever been.  The sign over the door read “annex.” The room that was revealed behind the door was small.  Another door on the other side of the room faced the entrance.  Sapphire was already there, her hooves crossed and a sour expression on her face.  She looked as if somepony had awakened her in the middle of the night. “I hope you understand the seriousness of this,” she began.  “Threats to Shades are not to be taken lightly, nor is the fact that somepony managed to figure out your home phone number.” Harv raised one hoof.  “It’s not like Arc gave Sisal Twist his number and said, ‘call me, maybe.’” “Regardless, we’ll need to set up some protection.”  Sapphire tossed her head towards the door, the one that hadn’t been opened yet.  “This will work until something has been established.” Proficient, standing closest to the door, grasped the knob and opened it.  Beyond lay another room, although it seemed to be out of sorts with the building.  The slightly inclined concrete floors and walls along with the lighting were different from any that could be found in the headquarters building.  The air that billowed out was chilly and damp. Black and yellow hazard stripes around the entry illustrated that something wasn’t quite standard. It took a moment for Arc and Roxy to realize that the edges of the doorway were slightly irregular, not being perfectly rectangular or straight lines.   Proficient anticipated the question.  “In case you’re wondering, yes, this is a literal door through space.” “Where does it go?” Roxy asked. “A place about a hundred twenty kilometers west of here,” Harv said. Arc frowned.  “That’s the ocean.” “Mostly, yes,” Sapphire agreed.  “The offshore annex is located there, off the south end of Hoofleson Island. Arc pointed at the door.  “You’re telling me this leads to our underwater headquarters - the offshore annex?” “The dry part of it,” Proficient said.  “Equal opportunity and all.” “It’s the best impromptu safehouse that we have,” Sapphire added. Proficient gestured, beckoning.  Arc and Roxy clasped hooves and walked towards the door. “Don’t touch the edges,” Harv warned.  “It’s bad for your existence.” Everypony took a careful high step over the threshold.  Sapphire lingered at the edge, looking as if she wanted to join the group, but instead waved goodbye and closed the door. “So this is the annex,” Proficient said.  “It’s understandably a little bit cold and wet.  We’re approximately one hundred meters below the ocean on an undersea shelf at the sound end of Hoofleson Island.  The water above is protected as part of the Navy bombing range on the island.  That, plus the depth, keeps any recreational divers from stumbling upon the facility.” “One hundred meters?” Arc echoed. “It’s very secure.  As Sapphire said, it’s the best safehouse we have.” “Anyway,” said Harv, “If you’re going to be here for a while we should probably introduce you.” Further into the room, the concrete walls gave way to a glassed-in reception area where a bearded stallion in a pea coat sat behind a desk.  His work space was personalized with a few small nautical decorations, including a model of a submarine inscribed with the words silent service. He stood as the group approached.  Proficient introduced them.  “Roxy, Arc, this is Deckplate.” He offered a hoof to both of them to shake, revealing that silent service was also engraved on a bracelet around his wrist.  “Nice to meet you,” said Deckplate.  “I’m the chief air-breather around here.” “Are the rest of the employees here seaponies?” Roxy asked. “Mostly.”  Deckplate shrugged.  “We get odds and ends from all over.  Come on, I’ll show you around.” Proficient and Harv said goodbye and went back through the door.  Deckplate took Arc and Roxy into another room, or perhaps compartment would have been more accurate.  All the construction was heavy and partitioned with steel.  Everything felt slightly damp to the touch. “This is where you’ll be staying,” Deckplate said, leading them into a small boxlike room with two single beds and a rack of shelves.  There was little else in the way of anything. “Is there any place to work out?” Arc asked. “Or to fly?” Roxy added. “There’s some exercise equipment around, here and there.”  Deckplate didn’t seem perturbed by the claustrophobic environment, and also didn’t seem to notice that his guests were not reacting the same way. Arc and Roxy left their bags in the room and followed Deckplate to other parts of the facility for something to do.  It looked like there wasn’t much to do in terms of entertainment, other than maybe being uneasy about the crushing ocean above. They came to a heavily reinforced steel hatch which Deckplate struggled with for a moment.  As it cracked open there was a slight change in pressure and a noticeable hiss of air escaped. “Here’s the work center,” Deckplate introduced, closing the hatch behind them. The area beyond was familiar to Arc, as it was clearly an office full of cubicles.  However, there were no floors, just water.  The computers and other equipment were heavily waterproofed, as their users were all seaponies. Other than the obvious fishy differences, for the most part they seemed like regular office employees.  Business casual was in effect, although a few went more dressy with jackets and accessories.  All the clothing was soaking wet, of course, but nopony seemed to mind. Deckplate checked his watch, a sealed diving model.  “It’s getting towards morning, so the day/night shift supervisors are probably turning over right about now.  I’ll take you to meet them.” Using what appeared to be a system of interlocking piers that rose above the water, they went into a room off the main work center.  A secretary waited behind a desk.  She nodded to Deckplate.  “I heard that we would be hosting some guests indefinitely.” “That’s right.”  Deckplate introduced them.  “This is Brandy.” There was a significant height difference between the ponies on the floor and the seaponies in the water.  Arc and Roxy had to bend over to shake hooves.  Brandy’s touch was cold and wet, although that was pretty much par for the course on everything at the annex. “I think Kai and Sela are just about done with their meeting,” Brandy said.  “You can go in.” Deckplate knocked on the office door behind Brandy and escorted Arc and Roxy inside.  The office had a few more decorations than the rest of the work center.  It also had a window, however it revealed nothing but black ocean. Kai was the oncoming supervisor.  He was well dressed and groomed, somehow managing to stay looking neat in the water.  Sela was his counterpart in job, if not in appearance.  Her dress was a little more lively and colorful. There was another round of hoofshakes as they were introduced.  “We’ll set you up with workstations so you can do something productive while you’re here,” Kai promised. “And a phone to call in sick to your jobs,” added Sela.  “Deckplate, would you be so kind?” “Sure,” Deckplate nodded.  “Assuming the phones work.  Something’s always happening to the cables.” After the brief introduction, Deckplate took Arc and Roxy back to their quarters.  Since the call from Sisal and everything else that had happened, both of them just wanted to get some rest – if cold wet separate beds under the ocean could be depended upon to provide. Deckplate left them alone.  With the light off, the compartment was absolutely black.  At least it was fairly quiet, the only sound a faint hum of distant pumps. The quiet was actually uncomfortable for Arc.  He had, after all, learned to sleep through artillery fire.  Roxy heard him restlessly shifting on his bunk. Breaking the silence, Arc asked, “Is it just me or did a few of those seapony stallions look a little strange?  Not fat, but like they were smuggling a basketball?” “Well…” Roxy considered.  “With seahorses, the males carry the young.” They were both silent for a moment.  Arc said, “I don’t think I’m going to ask for confirmation.” “It’s an interesting biological possibility, but I don’t think I want to know either,” Roxy agreed.  “I suppose the bottom of the ocean is a unique place to visit, for all the new things it offers, but I don’t know how long I want to stay here.” After a moment, Arc said, “So we were talking about taking a cruise sometime.  Is that off the table now?” Roxy laughed.  They both managed to rest easier after that. Deckplate woke them in a few hours for breakfast and to call in sick.  After completing their calls, Arc and Roxy joined him at a cramped table in the dry part of the facility. “What’s on the menu?” Roxy asked. “Well, the kelp is the freshest you’ll ever get,” Deckplate said.  “Everything else comes in a can.” Seaweed was not Arc’s idea of breakfast, but Roxy was willing to be a little more adventurous.  She did refuse to eat some of the preprepared items, although Arc thought it was more palatable than MRE’s. Proficient and Harv showed up with a briefcase as they were finishing the meal.  The two of them, plus Arc and Roxy, had a conference to discuss the events of the previous night. Taking out some documents for reference, Proficient explained the phone call.  “The number was traced to a radio autopatch operating in the VHF band.  These are mostly used by amateur radio operators to make calls on the phone system.  Unfortunately, we can trace to the repeater, but after that the call gets lost out on the airwaves.  There’s a slim chance that government sensors might have picked it up, but it will take some time for us to surreptitiously look through their mountains data to find it.” “So Sisal Twist has a radio,” Arc said.  “Does that tell us anything?” “A specific frequency is required to connect to the autopatch,” Proficient said.  “Unfortunately, radios that operate in the VHF band are very common.  Boaters, police, military, and a lot of civilians have them.  We might try looking through the government radio license database to see if Sisal turns up.” “Does she have a boat?” Arc asked.  “I noticed that she had a dock behind her house.” “We’re already checking that,” Harv assured him. “Where do we go from here?” Roxy asked.  “What else can we check?” “I’m still wondering how Sisal managed to find us,” Arc said. “Those are both good questions,” Proficient allowed.  “You could probably borrow a computer while you’re here for research – on projects of your own if you have nothing else to work on.  As for how Sisal figured it out, we have a few theories but nothing solid yet.” “So you want us to sit here and do nothing,” Arc observed flatly. Roxy glanced at him, thinking the same thing but glad that he had said it. “We take protection very seriously,” Harv replied.  There was an edge in his voice.  Proficient did not seem as personally involved but nodded in agreement. The two of them got up.  Harv produced a plastic grocery bag.  There was some fresh fruit, peanuts, and a few odds and ends of candy.  “We brought you some snacks.  The food down here sucks.” At least they were making the “sit on your hooves until we give the all clear” order more bearable.  Harv added, “Try not to let the seaponies beg anything from you.  They love crunchy stuff.  They don’t get much of that down here where everything is soggy.” Proficient and Harv had also brought a newspaper and left it with the snacks.  They said goodbye and went back to the surface. Arc and Roxy sat down to read the paper. Barring any other contact with the world above the waves, it would have to do.  Her wings had a wider span than his hooves, so she held it for both of them and they settled down to read it.  Unfortunately, the news was all bad.  On the front page was an article about the car bomb at the base. The details were still thin, but apparently somepony had leaked that it looked like an Al-Nestra bomb.  The gryphons of Al-Nestra had already issued a statement claiming they were being framed by minotaur rivals, who had replied, essentially, “That’s what you want everyone to think.”  The governments of Minos and the Gryphon Empire were also getting in on the act and it looked like one more hostile event or trade of blame could set the two countries into an all-out war. The news didn’t get any better on the next few pages.  There was a piece covering Sisal’s exploding house.  Roxy gave Arc a hard, but momentary, look.  He inclined his head slightly.  The two of them silently decided not to talk about it. There was nothing much interesting in the next few pages and Roxy folded the paper.  “That didn’t spend as much time as I hoped it would.” “They’ll let us use the computers,” Arc suggested. “I suppose I could try looking for similar genetic studies to mine,” Roxy suggested. “Need help?” Arc asked. Roxy didn’t, but smiled.  “You can help me type.” Deckplate pointed them to a side room that held a few waterproof workstations.  A few seaponies were already there.  One introduced herself to Arc and Roxy as they dragged one of the computers away from the water to use. “Hello, I’m Doria,” she said.  “What brings you here?” “Temporary assignment,” Arc said, helping Roxy set up the computer. Doria observed how closely and intimately the two of them were sitting.  “So where are you from?” “Where we’re living now or originally?” Roxy asked. Doria shrugged. “We usually work from the office in San Palomino,” Roxy replied.  “I’m originally from Appleoosa.” “I must admit, I don’t know much about that place.”  Doria laughed. “I’m from Trottingham, near Diamond Lake,” Arc put in. “I haven’t been to any lakes,” Doria said.  “Freshwater seaponies are weird.” The computer was started now and Roxy began searching.  Feeling obligated to continue the conversation, Arc said, “I haven’t met any.” “They’re…” Doria glanced around a lowered her voice.  “They’re a little like the hillbillies of the underwater world.” Arc’s lip twitched as he attempted not to laugh.  “I’ll take your word for it.” “Of course you would know more about hillbillies, right?  Like ponies from Ponyville?” Doria said. “What do you know about Ponyville?” Arc asked. “Peanuts come from farms near there.” “How did you know that?” “Whinny Carter was a peanut farmer and he was from Ponyville.” Arc frowned.  “How do you know about Whinny Carter?” Doria gave him an odd look.  “Well, I studied Equestrian history in school.  I’m a citizen, too.” “Sorry.”  Arc hadn’t stopped to consider exactly where international boundaries lay.  He fumbled awkwardly for a moment and then asked, “Would you like some peanuts?”