The Divers

Bending down to remove the crumbling flippers, she brushed back a slick of hair behind her ear. "Lena!" the unmistakable voice of her cousin carried to her, almost drowned out by the hum of the Rig.

Pushing the earth and its resources to the brink, humans had taken to the sky and oceans. Just one step short of leaving the planet entirely.

"They're still out there, Brinn," she called, grinning lopsidedly at her gangly relative.

"It's also dangerous out there. What if you were swallowed by a Collector?" The Collectors, put in place as a last ditch attempt to save the planet's oceans, sucked in the toxins and choking waste that their species had let go astray. They went some way to help, but the sheer magnitude of the pollution meant they had been too little, too late.

Lena straightened up, wrapping a towel around her shoulders. Already, her skin was raw from exposure to the water, but she didn't care. "I saw sharks, Brinn. No matter what we're told, they still exist." Brinn shifted uneasily, looking back along the pontoon to the metal reinforced door whence he came and Lena’s heart crumpled for him.

"Come on, it's time for dinner." He started walking back towards the door, just as the glistening insect of a helicopter came whining overhead. Lena squeezed some water from her hair, watching her cousin's retreating back. Sometimes he frustrated her. The Rig was all they had ever known. The ocean was so vast and deliciously unknown in comparison to their metal box. Yet to Brinn, that unknown was something to fear.

Eventually she left the pontoon, taking her flippers, goggles and snorkel with her. Each of the items was old and patched up in places with thick black tape. The rubbery flippers were starting to disintegrate, but Lena was careful to rinse them with purified water after each use.

Joining her family, her dad attempted to ruffle her wet hair. "Been at it again, have you?" Her aunt looked over with some exasperation.

"The swimming is not helping with your split ends, Lena." That was an understatement. Her hair, when dry, was an alarming ball of fuzz.

"You'll become a Diver, for sure," her dad chuckled. "Just like your mother." Lena's stomach twisted with nerves. Yes. She wanted to become a Diver. They were tasked with delving deep into the depths of the sea. Their main job was to collect scrap metal and other objects of use. But the things they must see!

Lena rarely saw her mother. The job meant she lived away for most of the year on another Rig, but when she came back, she would tell Lena of her adventures. Of the bizarre crustaceans that existed, even if there were only few.

The tests she had to pass would be tough. But surely it would be worth it. When the time came, she would be free to plunge into the glorious unknown, and find what was so rare and beautiful. And then, maybe she could protect it.

“Tell them what you saw, Lena,” Brinn said suddenly, quietly. The hot, thick air of their confined space pressed down on her as she had the room’s full attention. She couldn’t help but be surprised that Brinn had brought it up. Since his father had been attacked and lost an arm and his career as a Diver because of it. Reduced to working the Rigs, maintaining their small islands of civilisation. That had been over twenty years ago. If he hadn’t been on a particular Rig, at a particular time, he might have lived.

“I saw sharks,” I said, “Maybe fifteen of them.” My aunt, Brinn’s mother, winced. But my father couldn’t hide the light in his eyes, not even for Brinn and Thess. And I knew why. Sharks, in all their terrifying grandeur, were the true guardians of the sea. Not us, trying desperately to clean up our past mistakes. But maybe we hadn’t been too late after all. Horribly, sickeningly late. But not too late.

“Do you know what this means?” Dad’s eyes glistened with tears. I nodded, my face breaking into a crooked smile, his excitement infectious.

“Yes.”

Dad leant on the table, breathless. “There’s hope.” Even Brinn quirked a smile at that, and Thess’ eyes widened. “There’s actually hope.”