Defender of the Future
Book one of
The Tidesinger Trilogy

Chapter Nine

"The Asterite!"

Ecco stared in shock and wonder. "You're the Asterite!? Greshruk told me about you--!"

Greshruk the Slayer? She still lives? The Asterite's voice was interested. And she spoke to you, little one... We wonder what she saw in you. Certainly there is something about you...

"Who's Greshruk?" asked a very puzzled Chang. They both ignored her.

Ecco swam forward, trying to ignore the growing call to breathe that was bothering him. "Asterite," he said, "I need your help. I really do."

You have come to us, just as Tidesinger did so long ago, for help against the Foe.

"Yes," he said softly. "The Foe are back, Asterite, and they took my pod. Please... tell me what you know. Do you--do you know if the Foe have killed my family? The hermit crab didn't seem to think so--do you know what happened to them? Where were they taken?" He shuddered to a halt, realizing that he was making little sense. Lack of air was starting to make him light-headed--he hadn't breathed once during that long chase, and had used up a lot of the oxygen in his blood. Plus, he had lost much of his remaining air when he had caused the rockfall. Unable to help himself, he glanced down. One of the limbs of the lead Foe was reaching out from beneath the stone; it waved gently in the current, fingers curled in death. The acrid taste of its blood was in the water. He could hear the others screeching in the tunnel, scrabbling at the stone.

Ecco shook himself, trying to think. The lack of air was making it hard.

Come forward, child. The Asterite's voice was kind. Touch the spheres and we shall restore your breath.

Slowly, casting many glances back at the stone, he cruised forward and gingerly stretched his snout out, lightly touching the nearest sphere. The burning in his blood disappeared. Ecco blinked, realising he no longer needed to breathe--he felt as if he had just taken a long breath. "Thank you," he stuttered. Chang looked on in amazement.

Now... your questions. The hermit crab was correct, little one--the Foe have not yet killed your family. They have taken the dolphins with them to provide food for their nestlings.

"Nestlings?" he asked.

The Asterite's light flashed brightly, as if it were nodding in its own way. Let us tell you about the Foe, little one. They came here long ago, from another star. They are parasites. The Foe absorb the life of any organism with which they come into contact; they can strip bare whole continents. Their own home world was overrun by them long ago, and now it is nothing more than a barren rock. The Foe are intelligent; they built vessels that could carry them through the void. Many of their young they sent off through the sea of stars, to seek new worlds upon which to feed.

One day, many years ago, they found our world--the Earth. Such riches as this world possessed were greatly attractive to the Foe. They sent down a ship with a Foe breeder within it, and it landed in the sea. The adult Foe knew that their children, when they hatched, would multiply to infinity in a very short time. The Earth provided the perfect nursery for these hatchlings, possessing the amount of food which it did.

The Foe turned the waters red, and they preyed upon the land as well. They caused a great dying. In those days there were many other forms of life besides our own--in the waters lived reptiles and strange old fish, creatures that had survived the breaking of the world long before only to fall victim to the Foe. The biggest shark to ever live, Carcharodon Megalodon, the Whale-Eater, became extinct due to the Foe.

"Carcharodon?" Ecco asked. "Greshruk?"

Yes. Greshruk the Slayer is a half-breed--half Great White and half Megalodon. Her children carry some of the genes of Carcharodon, but they will never attain such dreadful power again. The loss of that specie is no loss to your kind, young Ecco, but the loss of other animals, especially upon land, was a terrible blow. Many species of mammals died. The Earth lost much of its biodiversity, and the work of the Foe allowed Man to assume his position as the primary predator on the planet.

"But the Foe were stopped." He blinked, unable to take in all the information at once. "I've heard it over and over again--the Foe were destroyed by a dolphin called Tidesinger." Momentarily he wondered how the Asterite knew his name, but he had bigger things to worry about. The Asterite was spekaing again.

Yes, the Asterite agreed. Tidesinger destroyed the Foe. But it seems some Foe larvae were missed. They buried themselves deep in the sea bed. The storm stirred them up again.

"That's why the Foe are here now..." Ecco nodded slowly. Things were starting to make sense. Tidesinger had defeated the Foe, yes, but he hadn't destroyed them completely. "Asterite, the last time they were here, they destroyed hundreds of creatures. What will happen this time?"

Who knows, the Asterite said sadly. Possibly this time they will be successful. If they take root here, they will soon spread to other worlds, and we will all die. Even we ourselves cannot fight for long against their insatiable hunger.

Ecco wanted to breathe. He touched an outstretched sphere, and felt the need die away once again. His mind was racing, running through all the possibilities. No matter how long he thought it through, everything came back to one thing.

"Asterite," he said softly, making an effort to stay calm, "I'm going to fight the Foe, if you'll tell me how. Tidesinger did it once, so we know it's possible to resist them. What's the secret? Greshruk mentioned a place called Atlantis where I could find out...

We will tell you what we can, swiftly, the Asterite said. But we must hurry. The Foe outside this chamber have not given up on you.

Ecco realised that there were still scratching, scrabbling noises coming through the rockfall. He turned uneasily, listening to the alien shrieking of the Foe voices. They were trying to dig through the stone. "Can they get through?" he asked nervously.

They will eventually. We have a little time yet, we believe.

"Then tell me," he said, "everything you know. How did Tidesinger defeat the Foe the first time? And how can I find Atlantis, or whatever it is I need?"

The Foe are collecting life forms from all over Earth's oceans. They will provide food for the larvae, as we have said. Once they are ready, they will send their larvae up in a ship with the brood mother--and once they are in orbit of the Earth, no power of ours will be able to stop them. They have already begun to build that ship, Ecco. You have less than a moon's cycle if you are to destroy them.

In order to destroy the Foe once and for all, Ecco, you must destroy the brood mother. Without the mother, there will be no new Foe. But in order to get to the brood mother, you must battle your way through all the Foe who have so far been born. They will fight to the death to protect her; she is the future of their species.

A rock from the pile shifted and rolled away. Ecco glanced down nervously, able to hear the Foe's shrieks louder now. They were getting through. The dead one's claw looked sinister in the light.

The Asterite was still speaking. Ecco, the Foe see a power in you. They know that you alone have the ability to stop them. The blood of Tidesinger runs in your veins: we see it by the stars you carry upon your head. The Foe will not rest now until you are dead, or they are. But you cannot fight them yet--you need a secret skill, a song.

When Tidesinger rose from the abyssal plane after defeating the Foe soldiers, the ship had already left the waters and was rising into the sky. Tidesinger sang to the moon, sang a song which has never been heard since, and the moon's light became like water, and he swam up it. He left the Earth behind and swam out into the sea of stars, and there he met the Foe on their own grounds. Tidesinger destroyed the Foe ship, and with it the brood mother.

And that should have been the end of it. But it seems that the Foe left behind an infant mother when they died. We sense her presence. She is still young, and not up to her full strength, but already she is giving birth to many new Foe. Ecco, you swim in Tidesinger's trail. You must find and destroy the brood mother, before it is too late. That is the only thing that will ever end the Foe threat.

"But I can barely manage to escape from the Foe themselves," Ecco said numbly. "How am I supposed to destroy their mother? They're bad enough on their own!"

We know, Ecco--we know. There are songs you can learn which will let you fight the Foe--they have been passed down over the years. The Moonsong is the secret treasure of the humpback whales and, if you come to them as Tidesinger's descendant, they will give it to you--but with luck you will not need to resort to it. The dolphins kept the Battlesong which allowed Tidesinger to stop Foe in their tracks. Seek out the lone-swimmers of Atlantis, and they will teach you all you need.

"Atlantis again! How do I get there? Greshruk said you knew!"

The Asterite seemed to laugh. Come closer, Ecco... look within our coils.

Greatly wondering, he did so. "I don't see anything..."

Look closer. Look up.

There was an opening in the roof of the cavern. Ecco slipped right between the twisting strings of spheres and floated in the center of the Asterite, gazing up. There was a strong upward current here, emanating from another hole in the floor and pulling him towards the hole in the roof. Looking into it, he could see a spark of light there.

"Is that daylight?"

Yes. We guard the route to Atlantis. It lies in an inland lagoon; the lone-swimmers come and go as they please through the gate. You shall find help there, Ecco.

He wriggled out from between the spheres, and looked up at the Asterite with an expression of helpless gratitude. "Asterite... I don't know what to say..."

There was a creaking, cracking sound from the stone. Ecco whirled and saw that the rocks were shaking as something pushed at them from below. He let out a squeal of fright as one of the boulders slipped from the top of the pile and bounced down onto the floor of the Asterite's cave.

They are nearly through. The Asterite's voice was solemn. You must go now, Ecco--hurry. We will cover your escape. Take the little angler with you.

Ecco nodded, and swam forward with Chang at his side. He paused suddenly, the coils only an inch from his noise. "Asterite, wait! I have to swim up on this current?" Castor's words came back to him. "We must be miles deep by now--I can't go up that fast, not even a sperm whale could. And I don't have the breath to go up slow..."

This is known to us. You need not fear, Ecco. We will protect you and the little angler from the change in pressure.

He bowed his head, accepting it at last. "Asterite... I can't thank you enough."

The rocks moved again. A spidery limb appeared from inside a deep crack; it flailed around, pushing other stones out of the way. The hole widened, and the head of the first Foe rose out of it. The muted shrieking suddenly became much louder. Ecco backfinned, Chang at his side--the Asterite's coils parted to let them both through.

Go, quickly! We do not know how long we can hold them back!

"Come on, Chang!" Ecco yelled, turning and diving into the strong hot-water current. It caught him and the little angler-fish and whirled them upwards at incredible speed. The Foe charged out into the Asterite's cavern, at least five or six of them--he saw the dark eyeless head of the first stare through the coils at him, teeth gleaming pale in the jaws, and then the Asterite, and the Foe, were gone. He and Chang were hurtling up through a narrow rocky shaft towards that far-off point of daylight. A warm blue glow surrounded the both of them, the Asterite's power.

There was a hollow explosion from below, and Chang squealed in fright. Almost immediately there came another, and the stones shook. Ecco's eyes widened as he saw great cracks splitting the rock around him. "Oh no!" he exclaimed.

"What's happening?" the angler-fish wailed, but her voice was barely audible over the rumbling thunder of stone. Ecco flailed in the current, trying to get himself oriented the right way up. Everything seemed to be shaking, cracking, breaking apart. The growing circle of daylight above was now joined by an amber glow from below. He and Chang whirled upwards with incredible speed, banging into each other.

The rumbling noise was joined by a roar from below. Looking down, Ecco saw something white below them, rising up the shaft as fast as they were going--it looked like a cloud of some sort.

Chang looked down, following his gaze, and let out a shrill squeal of terror. "Ecco, we have to go faster!"

"What is that?" he yelled back.

"It's an eruption!" The angler-fish stared into his puzzled eyes with an intense expression. "It's too difficult to explain, but sometimes the deep-down cracks and the water comes on fire--if that cloud catches us we'll be dead instantly! I've seen it happen!" Indeed the water was getting hotter by the minute.

Ecco looked up at the circle of daylight far above. It didn't seem to have gotten much bigger--there was just so far to go. "Fancy another lift?" he asked tightly.

"I never thought I'd do this willingly," Chang moaned as she maneuvered her body into a position from where he could get hold of her.

"Let's go," he said, and fastened his jaws around Chang's middle. Holding the angler-fish tightly, Ecco pointed himself so that he was facing upwards, and started to beat his tail, increasing their speed still further. The rocky walls, now riddled with cracks and leaking puffs of steam, flashed past too quickly for them to make out any details. Ecco let out a muffled squeal of pain, feeling the heat on his tail.

Chang could see down the shaft; she squealed in fright. "Faster, Ecco, faster!" He barely heard her over the backdrop of roaring and the explosions that were now frequent. The blue glow around them was flickering now, about to leave them. With a sudden surge of power, it burned blue, and then went right out. Ecco realised he needed air.

Daylight was approaching--the circle was getting larger fast. Ecco drew in his fins and swam as fast as he could, turning his slender body into a torpedo; Chang was causing drag, and he had to work harder to overcome it. Not far now... the walls were illuminated now not just by the pale light of Chang's lantern, but by reflected daylight. Now that the Asterite was no longer protecting them, Ecco was feeling the effects of the sudden change in pressure--they had still been two hundred feet or so down when the power went out all the way.

The walls were starting to shake themselves apart. Grimly Ecco worked faster, knowing that if they didn't get out in time they'd be buried in stone as well as cooked alive.

"You did it!" Chang squealed. Light hit them like a blow as they shot out of the end of the shaft--the blue of shallow water flashed briefly in Ecco's eyes, and then, they hit the water's surface and kept going, flung upwards by the current and their blistering speed. Ecco let go of Chang in shock, finding himself catapulted right into the air. Only a second later, an immense geyser of bubbling white exploded from the hole behind them. He went up nearly a hundred feet more before gravity finally caught up with him. The sun hung before his snout, huge, majestic and white-hot; he turned over in the air and was facing down towards the water that glittered in the daylight. For a long moment he seemed to hang suspended in the air.

They had come out in a shallow tropical lagoon, enclosed on three sides by land and on the fourth by rocky cliffs that ended in what looked like Man-made stone doors, incredibly huge. The faint pearly gleam of buildings was visible under the surface of the water. From this altitude, Ecco could see that the city was arranged in an odd circular formation, with clear pathways leading through the walls to a kind of hub.

The geyser had died down; he could see where it had been from the great circular wash on the water. He couldn't see Chang anywhere.

Ecco realised that he was now falling, very fast. He nearly panicked then, but had the self-control to draw in his fins and orient himself nose-first--just as if he had merely jumped very high. The water hurtled up to meet him, and he hit it with a crash. Throwing out his fins, he just managed to change direction in order to avoid hitting the bottom nose-first, and then he just hung half-stunned in the water that was bright enough to hurt his eyes. There was a loud splash and Chang entered the water only a few feet away, in a cloud of bubbles.

We're here, Ecco thought numbly. This place--it just has to be Atlantis. Now I can find the lone-swimmers...

He rose and caught breath, then dived again, keeping an eye out for any other dolphins; he spotted Chang below him, disoriented and swimming shakily in circles. Ecco cruised down towards the first of the buildings, calling out--but nothing answered him. And there was something wrong here... something strange...

"Oh, Asterite!" Ecco wailed.

The Asterite's information had obviously been out-of-date... by a very long way, if this was any judge. Atlantis was a city, yes, but a city long in ruins. There were no dolphins here, no nothing. The white buildings were in a shocking state of disrepair; most were only rubble and the faint outlines of walls. Everything was overgrown with weeds.