Escape Pod

Deepster Punks
by Maria Haskins

Surface

The animated tattoos on Jacob's skin glimmer in the dark water, words and images swarming over his skin, bright and luminous, before they fade away again.

"Don't you dare die on me." I'm holding his head above the waves, but his naked body is cold and slick and heavy in my grip. By now, I should be able to see the lights of the ocean platform, but there's nothing, only darkness above and below, no horizon separating them. I unseal the mask of my thermal-suit so I can talk to him, even though I'm not sure he can even hear me anymore. "You're one lucky bastard, you know. If the Company had sent us anywhere else in the system and you pulled this kind of stunt, you'd be dead already."

It's true. Beneath the icy mantle of Ceres, in the 10 K depths of Enceladus, he'd be dead for sure. In the sub-surface ocean of Ganymede, or in the tidal-flexing waters of Europa, he'd be dead-dead-dead. Dead like Petra. But he's here, on Earth, with me, and he's alive.

Stay alive, Jacob. Please.