They were in a bad spot. The boat was under the surface of a poisoned water with a thing expanding from the bottom. One serious move would send the prototype to the bottom before they could get out of the situation.

Zachariah jogged to the helm bubble and wondered how they had got in this situation. He concluded it was his fault for not arming the boat like it should, and treating the job as something to get done as fast as possible without consideration for what would happen if he was wrong.

He should have known something like this would happen.

He decided to wait until he had seen things for himself before he asked Gold Bug to put something random together to help deal with this situation. He needed to know what he was dealing with first before he could suggest anything.

Once he had an idea, he would have to implement it before Festus acted with his dragon.

The boat wouldn’t survive the rocks that would come down when that happened. The metal hull would take a beating, but not from something like that. The craft would break in half and the water would kill the crew before it hit the bottom. Their daemons would not stop that from happening.

Zachariah reached the helm and looked out through the window. Something was growing out there as Octo backed them out of reach. How did they stop it before it endangered the coast and the people there?

“It will break the surface in a couple of minutes from the way it’s growing,” said Octo. “Any ideas?”

“One,” said Zachariah. “But it is so outlandish, I don’t think it will work.”

“What do I need to do?,” asked Octo.

“Back off but keep it in sight,” said Zachariah. “I’ll see if Gold Bug can do something about this. It will probably be one shot. So once we do what we can, you’ll have to think of a follow up while we’re trying to think of something ourselves.”

“Do what you can,” said the pilot. He worked the lever to steer away from the

growing column.

Zachariah headed back to the gunner’s station. He thought about what he could come up with while he slid down the ladder and ran along the deck. He had something in the back of his mind. He had no idea if it would work. He didn’t know if the boat would survive what he was about to do.

If he did nothing, they would go to the bottom and die unless he pulled out a miracle if that happened.

“I need any loose metal brought to the gunner’s station,” Zachariah shouted along the deck. “Give me whatever you got.”

He found Nick shooting blindly with the light cutter when he reached the station. The gunner looked up.

“I need you to move out of here so I can do some work,” said Zachariah. He gestured for the other man to clear out.

“All right,” said Nick. He unstrapped and stepped out of the bubble. “Got a plan?”

“Not really,” said the machinist. “I’m hoping Gold Bug can do something spectacular that will save our lives in the next five minutes before we are wrecked and sent to the bottom of the harbor.”

“I would like to see that happen too,” said Nick.

“Got any metal?,” said Zachariah. “I’m going to need it for construction.”

“I have some wrenches,” said Nick. “And a coil.”

“See if you can get me some more,” said Zachariah. He took the metal offerings and put them on the floor. He put Gold Bug on the floor and let him start eating.

They didn’t have a lot of time, and they needed something big to deal with what was out there. And they had to do it before Festus got involved.

Primrose could destroy the boat by accident shooting at the monster as it reached for the shore.

The daemon started constructing on the deck out of the metal he was chewing and transforming into work material. It looked like a stand designed to hold something upright. The ant continued to work until he had a partial ring built from the base.

“Eat the door if you have to get more material,” said Zachariah. “We’re going to need the biggest shot we can take do the most damage before we’re sent down to the bottom.”

Gold Bug wiggled his antenna. He climbed up to where the shutter was drawn. He took small bites out of that and converted it to wires. He placed the wires along the base of the ring. He ran them to the door control.

Zachariah didn’t know what he intended, but it looked like his daemon wanted the wires to trigger when the lever was pulled. He got out a tool kit and took the cover off. He pulled the relevant wiring from the hole and began splicing them to the wires extended by the ant.

Bolan and Carson arrived with blocks of metal that would have been used for small patches by their own daemons. They set them down on the deck for Gold Bug to eat and continue the job.

“What is he making?,” asked Carson.

“I have no idea,” said Zachariah. “You might want to construct a bulwark in case this fails and the water starts coming into the boat.”

“There’s not enough metal,” said Carson.

“Knives can build a force wall if we need him to,” said Bolan. “He can hold the water out until we surface.”

“All right,” said Zachariah. “Get ready with it. As soon as Gold Bug is done, we are going to try to make a difference.”

“I can put patches up on the other side of this so the engine room and helm will be safe until we figure out how to get to the surface,” said Carson.

“Good idea,” said Zachariah. “Better hurry. “I don’t know how long this will take.”

Gold Bug worked his way through the metal patches. He worked his antennae when he was ready to finish his creation. They didn’t have a lot of time from what he could see outside the window.

Zachariah worked the controls on the guns to make sure the thing didn’t ignore the boat to attack the land. He had to protect everyone he could. He didn’t have the luxury to hope that Octo could keep them safe with his maneuvering.

Gold Bug climbed up to his neck to let him know that he had to move out of the bubble if he wanted to live. He took the hint and moved out of the chamber. The device that his daemon had built was a ring on a stand with the firing mechanism hooked to the latch lever.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” said Zachariah. He went to the lever. He

pulled it down to activate the ring.

The shutter came down to isolate the bubble from the rest of the ship. The machinist stepped back from the dropping metal barrier. Something screamed through the sheet. He stepped back again in the hopes that wasn’t the front of his boat taking some kind of impact damage. He needed a view of the outside.

What had Gold Bug built? And did he want a copy for himself to use for more than one shot at saving everyone’s lives?

He hoped he hadn’t allowed his daemon to send everyone to the bottom while futilely doing something to save the day.

He climbed up to the helm. Octo had the shutter closed. He guided the ship with a compass and the memory of where rock piles could be on the ocean floor.

“Octo,” said Zachariah. “I don’t know what’s about to happen, but you have to be ready to surface.”

“Got it,” said the pilot. “Anything else I should know?”

“You might want to back away from the thing,” said Zachariah. “There might be an explosion.”

“Thanks for telling me that,” said Octo. “How soon?”

“I think that part of it already happened?,” said the machinist. “I don’t know.”

“All right,” said Octo. “There’s drag on the nose. I also have alarms from down there. What happened?”

“I’ll tell you about it if we can make it back to the dock,” said Zachariah. “I think the front and the guns are gone at the moment.”

“I’ll let you explain that to Benz,” said Octo. “I can’t see anything from up here.”

“I need to talk to Carson and Bolan,” said Zachariah. “They should have retreated to Engineering to keep the engines running.”

“I’ll let you know when we’re above the surface,” said Octo. “The meters still work from what I can see.”

“I’ll explain everything and hopefully we’ll be able to repair the damage in time to send you back to Lobster Bay before the deadline,” said the machinist.

“As long as we don’t have to worry about something else without your daemons along to fix it, we should be okay,” said the pilot. He gave a thumb’s up. “We’re climbing despite the damage. We should be breaching any time now.”

“We should be able to fix the window with the rest of things,” said Zachariah. “Be careful with the water until we have it mopped up. It certainly will be poisonous of some nature. We also don’t need it spreading and killing citizens.”

“I’m ready,” said Octo. “What did you do?”

“I think Gold Bug came up with a gravity gun like we used before but with a different diameter of attack,” said Zachariah. “But if the blast didn’t wreck it, the weapon was probably destroyed when the water came into the gunner’s bubble. Gold Bug can invent some practical inventions but they are so fragile that they break after one use.”

“I got it,” said Octo.

Zachariah descended the ladder and walked to the back of the boat. He could hear the strain from the forward jets through the system. That was something to think about for the next iteration.

He reached the bulkhead that Carson had promised to put up. He knocked on it with a fist. Could they hear him in there?

“Who goes?,” asked an intercom on his left.

“We’re surfacing,” said Zachariah into the device. “We’re going to have to do some damage control.”

“We’re ready,” said Carson. “Let me take down the wall. Then we can get started.”

“We need to lift the boat out of the water first before we can get to work,” said

Zachariah. “We can’t do anything until we can dump the death water out of the gunner’s bubble.”

“Understood,” said Carson. “Bolan says we’re close to the surface according to the instruments.”

“All right,” said Zachariah. “I have to go up and see what I can do. I’ll come get you when it’s safe to come out of the engineering section.”

“All right,” said Carson. “Don’t take too long. I’m already getting antsy.”

“It’s better to make sure we’re not poisoned than charging out into the avoidable death,” said Zachariah. “Just hold on.”

He retreated from the wall and made his way up back to the gunner’s bubble. Octo had opened the shutter to see the outside. Cracks ran along the windshield from the near hits the boat had taken.

The dock’s cradle loomed in the distance. A crew stood ready to pull them out of the water.

“Let’s see if we can dock without killing anyone,” said Zachariah.