“Be not afraid of whirlpools, of strong winds, and murky waves. Fear the creature that dwells in the darkest depths, the ice-shackled Kraken, that threatens to surface and your soul to keep.”

Erna Grcic, (2020)

Throughout the centuries the Proto-Kraken grew, almost entirely unopposed.

As the skies burned and civilization fell, victim of its own hubris as its people choked upon poisoned skies and gasped for respite that the contaminated water could not give, far deep below in its abyssal – kingdom it coiled in awful majesty.

In ironic homage, the creature that would evolve in the darkness and come to rule the stagnant ocean depths, the Proto-Kraken flourished as the Garsedi of Hectate#7b destroyed their world. The same ruin with which their warmongers sowed the planet, became sustenance and agent of serendipity for this dark prince of the tides.

A proliferation of mutagenic – agents that were the twisted legacy of the weapons that razed the surface and blighted the very air were as manna to the Proto-Kraken as its DNA was subverted and molded into the very stuff of nightmares.

As ten millennia slowly passed, the creature grew and consumed and dominated all other life that had managed to endure the formation of the Hellworld, hidden deep within the dark fastness of her crushing ocean depths.

Thus, it had ruled as the ultimate apex predator, but like the heedless people that had ruined their world, it survived the forced – evolution of its being and state. The Proto-Kraken had to consume more and more to thrive and over time it too emptied the life tenacious enough to endure the poisoned seas until the hunger inside transcended even its own endless rage.

And it was forced to the surface to seek other prey to sate its burning desire.

The catamaran pitched sickeningly up towards the sky, it’s deck canted at a crazy angle and the fury of the beast tore and wrent at the fragile seacraft as Lieutenant Commander Hanley and Chief Harvey fired again and again at the fury of thrashing tentacles and the sea boiled with frantic movement around them.

An oar-shaped tentacle flashed across the deck and decimated the emergency shelter that the away team had lashed to the deck and Lane was grateful to see that Professor Venrax had had the foresight to quit the temporary structure before the tentacle carried it away into the acid – ocean. The surviving Romulan Republic scientist was clinging desperately to the shattered stub that remained of the vessel’s mast and was gamely trying to avoid the attention of the flailing appendages that lashed the air around him.

Slowly and execrably, whatever the nightmarish creature that had rose from the depths may be, it was plain to Hanley that its assault was systematically destroying the catamaran, pulling it apart. Lane looked down at where the ruinous seawater had made contact with her suit and could see to her dismay, that the water had eaten clear through the outer layer of fabric.

++Suit integrity at 12%++

If they did not stop the murderous rampage of this colossal creature, the ocean would finish what the creature had started.

=^= “Chief! This isn’t working!”=^= Lane hollered to Lieutenant Harvey as the port pontoon began to splinter and warp under the impossible strength of the creature. For every shot that managed to connect with the flailing limbs, many others went wide. It was like trying to shoot spaghetti in a tumble-dryer.

Similarly, any fire directed at what could be seen of the creatures hideous body and head, for the brief moments that they broke the churning surface, seemed to be absorbed by its mammoth bulk, even if they did seem to enrage it further.

Whilst the Proto-Kraken could be seen to be a perverse juxtaposition of shark and giant squid, in reality it was neither and Lane knew it was only her familiarity of earth – analogies that drew these comparisons. Similarities aside, this creature was different and wholly alien to those Terran contemporaries, but no less lethal for the difference.

Its shuddering bellow wrent that dark night air as what must be the creature’s head broke through the caustic waves again and Lane was forced to roll away to avoid being caught in the destructive deluge.

Where a shark had concentric rows of inwardly canted razor – sharp teeth, the Proto-Kraken had serried rows of vicious incisors arrayed in a shuddering-maw that opened like the fleshy petals of a flower. Yet inside that awful budding, more layers of teeth predominated and opened up in turn one within the other.

The net effect was akin to viewing a Matryoshka ‘Babushka’ doll crafted by a madman.

Thick tendrils of gluey saliva flecked through the air as the creature roared its fury and Lane was glad that the suit prevented her from having to experience what its breath must smell like.

The situation was hopeless.

The catamaran was disintegrating around them. The creature’s heaving bulk just seemed to soak up their phaser – fire and the burning seas beckoned gruesome death.

Lane closed her eyes.

Suddenly she snapped them open again as the Chief’s deep baritone called a loud and strident cadence over the comm – channel.

=^=“ACTUAL-ONE! OMAHA!” =^=

Hanley rolled over on to her back and let herself roll down the steeply sloping deck as she became aware of a dark object passing over her, wobbling with the impetus of a perfect spiral.

The image of Lucius Harvey, clad in his Starfleet issue EVA suit, his form classic as he shotgunned the grenade like he’d just taken the snap at Third and Goal on the 6 -yard line, the munition drilling through the poisoned – air as it sailed into the screaming gullet of the Proto-Kraken, was an image that would stay with Lane Hanley for the rest of her days.

She had just enough time to bring her arms reflexively and protectively up to cradle her helmet when the skies seemed to ignite and a powerful explosion rocked the remains of the catamaran and the air was full of charnel as the Proto-Kraken was torn apart.

Hanley kicked a smoking lump of blubber away from herself with her foot and shook her head.

=^= “And they said I didn’t have the chops to play Quarterback.” =^= Lucius rumbled with some satisfaction as the remaining tentacles let go of the vessel and slid down into the stinging – depths with the carcass of the awful sea – creature as it went through its death – throes.

It took some time for Lane to get her breath back as she lay on her back looking up at the bruised clouds. When she was able to, she sent;

=^= “That’s one hell of an arm, Chief.” =^=

A pause, then;

=^= “Yes Ma’am, it is.” =^=

Lane laughed out in relief, as the cat’ righted itself and began to bob gently on the calming wave-tops.

=^= “Didn’t know you had any grenades left?” =^= Hanley propped herself up on her elbows, the euphoria of finding herself still alive was making her quite giddy.

The suited figure shrugged his massive shoulders and sent simply;

=^= “I was saving it for the right time. This seemed the right time.” =^=

Lane laughed despite herself, tears rolled down her cheeks and collected in the padding around her faceplate.

=^= “That it was Chief. That it certainly was!” =^=

Another voice came across the comm-channel and broke through their discourse.

=^= “This is all very touching.=^= Professor Venrax’s voice interjected thinly. =^= “But it rather detracts from the not insignificant point that we are, in fact, sinking.” =^=

Lane sighed and cast her eyes around the shattered remains of the catamaran. The Romulan was right.

The fragile craft that had borne them so far north was ruined. One pontoon was holed and taking on water, it’s twin warped and bent by the colossal strength of the Proto-Kraken. The tiller had been smashed away in the initial assault but (most ruinous of all) the all-important mast had been shattered and the sail had flagged and flopped into the acidic – ocean and was slowly dissolving away, so as to be useless.

They were dead in the water and Lane was keenly aware that this was the second ship she had lost in under a week.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “smooth seas never made a skilled sailor”. Being exposed to difficult situations is the path toward competency and is a necessary component of a captain’s character and for all that she had endured over the last few days, Lane Hanley was a commanding officer able to prioritize and take the ‘big-picture-view’ of her situation, even when she had little to take stock of.

She was also the daughter of Admiral Eustace “Bull” Hanley and was keenly aware that the ‘great man’ would not have given up in the face of such impossible odds, so she resolved that she’d be damned is she would either.

You had to think outside the box and make do with what odds you had available.

Lane considered their course and progress, before the creature had attacked them. They had been making steady progress northwards under sail, their passage aided by a favorable northern – conveyor current. The ice had been steadily forming on the mast and frosting the lines as they made way so, even without the benefit of technology to assist with global positioning, dead reckoning told her that they were roughly still on course for the pole.

Exactly how far they still had to travel was harder to estimate, but Lane conservatively ventured that they still had roughly one third of their journey to complete. A distance of some 1,480 miles in total.

In typical style, Hanley made her mind up and committed herself to the only course of action available to her, even if the chances of success were so vanishingly slim as to be said to be negligible.

=^= “We’ll use the suits AG – function and abandon ship.” =^= Lane commanded grimly. =^= With some luck, we should be able to reach the outer limits of the arctic shelf and find pack ice to set down on before the grav-units fail.” =^=

There was silence as the implications of his desperate course of action sank in and finally the Chief replied.

=^= “That’s one heck of a ‘Hail – Mary’ there, Boss.” =^=

Lane nodded in agreement and tried to push aside the sickening feeling in her stomach as she too contemplated their odds of survival.

=^= “Last one left in my playbook, Chief.” =^= Lane admitted with genuine regret.

The former varsity running – back for Starfleet Academy just nodded and did not labour the point any further. Sometimes the hard play was just a hard play and when the call came down to the nines, all you could do was trust in yourself and your team and back the coach’s call.

=^= “Then that’s just what we’ll do.” =^= Lucius nodded phlegmatically.

=^= “Thank you, Chief.” =^= Lane nodded back, deeply glad of the Chiefs resolve and support.

=^= “Er, excuse me?’’ =^= Venrax interrupted again, his voice awkward as the pair of Starfleet officer’s turn to see the Romulan standing mawkishly in the slowly flooding deck of the sinking ship, his arm raised like a schoolboy.

=^= “My suit doesn’t have AG – capability.”=^= The Professor sounded apologetic.

Unvexed by this latest revelation, Lane looked around at the wreckage of the catamaran and eventually replied.

=^= “We should be able to rig up some sort of harness, from what we have here. We can sling you between the Chief and myself. It won’t be altogether too comfortable, but we should be able to generate enough lift to carry all three of us.” =^= Hanley assured the scientist.

There was a pause, then;

=^= “Sorry for continuing to play the ‘devils-advocate’, but won’t that also be place more strain on your own suits and be harder to sustain? Surely the units won’t be able to carry us as far?” =^= Venrax worried aloud and wrung his hands miserably.

Refusing to leave the Romulan behind to suffer an awful fate, Lane shook her head defiantly.

=^= “We’ll just have to hope that the pack ice extends far enough south and pray that the units last that long before they burn out.” =^= Hanley assured the panicked man through gritted teeth.

=^= “Or…?” =^= the Professor ventured rhetorically and let the question hang in the air.

It was Chief Harvey who answered dryly in response to the scientist’s morbid question as he began to search around the confusion of the deck in the darkness, trying to find suitable items with which to jerry – rig a viable harness for Venrax.

=^= “Or else, we’re going to test exactly how strong the bond between Federation and Republic really is…..” =^=