CATACLYSM

Prelude and Chapter 1: CAPTURE part 1 of 4 by beelock

THE CATACLYSM

In 2412, disaster struck Earth. Water poured violently from the sky. Oceans rose and swallowed villages, towns, and cities. Parents who reached for their drowning children quickly found themselves in a shared watery grave. More than an estimated two-thirds of the human population was decimated in a matter of days. They called this event the Cataclysm.

Only a few small outcroppings of people remained on the planet. Most survived by fleeing into orbit and forming one large space station, Daedalus. The spacers tried to rescue Earthlins from the surface, with some success. But soon they found a mysterious new disease had transformed many of the living - and more of the dead - into ravenous beasts with a taste for human flesh.

The year is now 2442.

Chapter One: CAPTURE

Rain.

It pitter-pattered against the metal hull of the ship. Cas watched it slide across the viewscreen lens, drop after drop in quick succession, moment after moment of slight blur. Even in the sterile dryness of the Tempest Horizon, rain made Cas feel alive.

“I can’t see anything,” Cas said to her pilot, “tell me you’ve got something?”

“The scanners are piecing together the landscape,” her pilot, Ema, wearing a specialized visor connected to the computer, responded. “Trust me, captain, I can see a lot better with the ship’s instruments than you can with your eyes!”

Cas smiled. “I knew there was a reason I chose you for this mission.”

Another crew member said, “As if anyone but Em could navigate us through such a torrent!” His name was Vektor, and he had green, curious eyes. Vektor didn’t need to be on the bridge at the moment - landing the ship only required the captain and pilot - but Vektor had little else to do until they captured something for him to dissect. So he mulled around, touching this and that, and adding commentary to their already difficult task.

The Tempest Horizon cut through the storm like a shark, hovering just above the raging rivers below. The ship had been designed for all sorts of aquatic endeavors. It turned out that once a craft could survive passage through the earth’s atmosphere, it wasn’t hard to also make it water-capable. The problem now was finding a place stable enough to hold its weight.

“I think I have something,” Ema said. She turned the ship. Cas watched on the viewscreen as the rain disappeared, and shadows engulfed them. “We’re under an old bridge - it should hold.”

“What’s the water depth?” Cas clicked through some scans on a console nearby.

Ema hesitated. “The struts will reach… mostly.”

Cas studied the computer. “Alright, let’s try. Whenever you’re ready.”

The Tempest Horizon vibrated as the struts extended. Cas heard them make contact with the water below, and then a few long moments later, with the submerged ground. Em cut the engine. Cas could hear the river lapping at the lower hull.

“Well done,” Cas said. “We’ll wait for the storm to pass, then head out in groups to survey the area this afternoon. Ema, please share the local map with the team.”

“Yes, captain.” Em asked, “Are we planning on any captures today?”

“Just surveillance for now.” Cas looked over the map. They couldn’t prepare for a capture and cure until they knew what was out there.

Captain Cas Cassidy gathered documents on the screens before her. Their mission came in three parts: first, general surveillance of the region, developing a detailed map and detecting any animates or reanimates roaming around. Second, capture and cure. This was Cas’s specialty. She’d led multiple successful capture-and-cure missions in the west. At over one-hundred lives reclaimed, Captain Cassidy stood as one of the most successful Snatchers from Daedalus station. And for the rare circumstance when she couldn’t capture a target, well - that was why she had the Necrope, Vektor.

Third: find and eliminate the source of the infestation. Cas studied the preliminary map. That would be the hardest part, she guessed, simply because of the sheer amount of water here. Out west, the Cataclysm waters had largely receded. There were massive lakes, yes, and arguably a sea or two, but Cas wouldn’t dare call it an ocean. But here, along what had been the eastern American shore when Cas was born, the floodwaters met the Atlantic in a terrifying rage of currents and waves. She didn’t think it was even possible to rid these waters of the wyrms.

But then again, this was her specialty. That’s why Commander Singh sent her, wasn’t it? If anyone can manage it, it’s you, she’d said, back on Daedalus station.

And there was another reason.

Cas glanced over her shoulder. Ema and Vektor had both left. Alone, Cas opened a confidential report. This was a scan of the Earth’s surface from orbit, so it lacked detail; yet she could still make out the faint glow of an energy signal coming from somewhere in this area. Daedalus hadn’t known what to make of it at first. It had turned out to be the same energy reading as an old class of starship. The previous model of Cas’s ship, last flown some fifteen years prior, when it was lost to the eastern sea.

Last flown by Cas’s father.

***

Illustrations by John V. Salvino, johnvsalvino.com