Rylie remained silent beside him, having no reaction at all. The sisters couldn't be more different. Netto caught his partner’s eyes in grim silence.
“The ship is torn in two, shoot, it’s torn in fourths.” She lowered her voice. “Something else did this.”
Montihan spoke up, gliding his hand on the gash of one of the metal pieces. “We can't rule anything out. We've never lost a man to one of the sea beasts. I can't understand why it would happen now. The worker could've hit rocks or could've been drunk. We don't know because we weren't there.”
“Waterships have cameras?” Zeph asked. “Or any tech that matters?”
Montihan said over his shoulder, “We have security tech but nothing would've survived this, and we've already tried to locate this ship’s signal. Everything, even the waterproof machinery, was destroyed. We had the Kepler satellites check again after we found this. If the security feed had picked up something prior then we'll never know.”
“All right.” Zeph slowly walked around the ship. His partner was looking for anything they could use to help them figure out what happened. Netto need didn't need to look. He already knew what happened. However, details were needed to go along with the proof he had before he suggested their next course of action.
He pulled inside himself and threaded his connection outward, looking for a signal to the network. He found a weak one. It felt like a feather over his conscience. He delicately picked it up. The sensation of his body vanished, and for a moment he lost ground, but he was able to find what he was looking for: the Kepler government’s meteorology chart and weather data for the past two weeks.
Netto centered on the Montihan’s region and expanded outward, but no storms had occurred in the last week. As he continued to search, it confirmed that no storm destroyed the watership. It didn't rule out drunkenness—that much he couldn't prove—or mechanical failure, which he would also have a hard time proving, based on the condition of the ship.
He let go of the flimsy connection and re-centered inside his body, taking control of the cybernetics he had left behind.
There was a hand in his grasp. Netto looked down to see Rylie's fingers threaded through his. Her skin felt cold and the palm of her hand clammy. Netto delicately squeezed it in reassurance. Tension radiated off her. He wanted to absorb it but she let go and left him.
The touch of her skin remained firm in his mind. His eyes trailed after her as she walked toward her dad and took his arm. His jealousy soared as she pressed her forehead against Montihan’s upper arm.
“It's going to be okay.” Rylie put her arms around her father as he turned to hug her back. “I know why you didn't want me to see this, but I wish you wouldn’t keep things from me. If Janet and I are to inherit, we can't be left in the dark. This is as much our problem as it is yours.”
Janet joined the hug. Netto watched, jealousy giving way to envy. He looked at his partner but Zeph wasn't watching the family; the rubble of the watership held his interest. Families weren't meant for Cyborgs, only for humans. From birth, it was a human’s right to family as it was a Cyborg's right to strength.
“Your ma and I are afraid for you girls and for our friends. We haven't lost one of our own, yet, but every day it feels like our luck might change.”
“We’ll just have to be more careful. Smarter,” Janet said, laughing under her breath. “More cunning.”
“We’ll take extra precaution. We’ll send two waterships to every lot, so no one is alone out in the ocean,” Rylie suggested as the girls clung to their father, who ruffled their hair.
“Yeah, it could be like old times when Rylie and I had to work together in our training. Let the competition commence.”
“We can reinstall the turrets on each boat and keep enough firepower on each ship to take down a serpent. It's not like we have enough work to go around as it is right now and I'm sure many of the workers would like companionship during the hauls.”
Netto watched the exchange even after the girls released themselves from the embrace. He wondered what a hug felt like. Warm, he assumed.
“You girls are going to do just fine,” Montihan said as he turned back to the destroyed ship. “But your Ma and I hope this is merely a fluke. So far, it's been the settlements north of us that have been affected.”
“I know what's wrong.”
Everyone turned to Netto.
“He doesn't know but he has an idea,” Zeph said, a little competitively.
“Well?” Janet prompted.
“What do you know?” Montihan asked, the tired grooves over his brow a little less deep.
“The oceanic seawall has been damaged.”
“That's impossible.”
“What's the oceanic seawall?” Rylie asked.
Montihan continued, “That sensory barrier, I was told, is supposed to last hundreds of years. It's only been several dozen... The coastal inhabitants of Kepler were promised.”
“You were.” Netto nodded, feeling the strain of the endeavor ahead. “But this,” he pointed at the rubble, “wouldn't have happened otherwise.”
