Nomad of Neptune

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

Life flashes back into Master Gunnery Sergeant James Denison as his mind wanders in the small cryo-pod. A red aura pulses as his vision begins to focus on the frosted glass. The bitter cold elevates his heart as the thawing and cold sweat tests his body's defenses. He focuses on his surroundings and looks down at an ejection lever and pulls it. The pod cracks open as Denison slithers out and plops on the floor.

The steam from the pod clears as a small eight-foot square room comes into view. The white steel walls with grated shelves and metal cabinets hang on the walls. A blast door adjacent to the pod lies closed. A few electrical pipes hug the ceiling and a table lies off to the side of the pod. The ship sways as if it is floating, which causes Denison to puke.

"Where am I?" he mumbles. "Who am I for that matter?

He eyes a plaque framed on a small desk of him in his ghillie suit and M24 sniper rifle. "James Denison," He mumbles. "Okay, that was the easy part." The ship takes a bounce from a wave. "Floating?" He pukes again.

A few flashes of memory hit him as he retches some more. Then more memories fill his head to the point of pain. His childhood…His parents…Wife…Son…His military past. Denison lies in pain for a few minutes, then Denison gazes up at an intercom with a note, Push me for Sit Rep!

Denison's naked skeleton like body slips and sways as he moves toward the wall. His shakily hand reaches for the cryo-pod. He lifts himself up, hearing his joints pop back to working functions. His wet feet slip a little as he tries to balance. He hits the intercom and sits on the edge of the cryo-pod.

"Welcome back from your slumber, Sergeant." A female computer voice statically crackles through the medical room. "I am Azia, I have already sent a signal back to earth. Your CO and doctors will be gathering as we speak. Please dress yourself and proceed to the cockpit."

Denison's memory has filled back to normalcy, he gazes and sees a military fatigue and army boots laying on a table. "Computer?" He calls out. No response. "Azia?"

"Yes Sergeant, what do you need? She replies.

Tears fill his eyes as he breaks down. "My family, what happened to my family?

Azia falls silent for a brief second, "Your family are living in a medical zone on the outskirts of Pennsylvania, they were extracted from DC forty-three days ago."

"My parents?" He mumbles.

"I'm sorry, Sergeant. They did not make it out of the city in time." Azia replies.

A sigh of relief and tears take hold of Denison. His tears freeze a bit as the pod is still thawing. He composes himself as he turns to the table and dresses. "Anything new on the mission, Azia?"

Azia chimes in. "I am not at liberty to comply, Sergeant. Anything new will come directly from your CO."

The cockpit doors slide open as Denison drunkenly wades to the chair. The dark cockpit is lit up by faint lights on buttons and switches. The U shaped steering wheel has triggers on each handle and red buttons on the top. He falls in and turns toward the window. "Azia, what is my location, where am I? He looks for a switch to open the windows, he finds it and flicks it. They slide open as Denison gasps.

"You are 50 miles West from your target location, Sergeant." She replies. "The shuttle has been floating for nearly two days since it landed."

Denison franticly looks all around but all he can see is water. No land mass, no mountains, and the sky mirrors the water. Azia statically comes back through. "Welcome to Neptune."

A blinking button next to a monitor beeps, relieving Denison of his trance. Azia chimes in, "Your CO and doctors are on line, Sergeant."

Denison hits the button and the monitor flicks to life. A few faces appear on screen.

Colonel Orson, a tall muscular man with a straight trimmed black goatee is at the front. His grey officer's uniform firmly pressed but less visible than the number of medals pinned to his chest. "Denison." He grunts. " How you doing, Son?"

"Things are coming together, Colonel. Just like the doctors said they would." Denison mumbles as he rubs his head. " The memory pains was a little much than I anticipated."

Doctor Florence, a geeky thin man with thick glasses rummages through his white lab coat to find his stylus, as he butts in front of the Colonel. "Judging by your vitals, Sergeant, your heart is elevated and condition seem to be stagnant. You sure your all right?"

Denison gazes outside as the Doctors PDA tablet beeps with increasingly inputs. "Ended up fifty miles off course, and a little nervous about being a floating lunch for anything that may be lurking."

Colonel Orson slides the Doctor out of the way. " Listen Denison, this is top priority. You must get that bird up in the air, as you just said we don't know what creatures, could be lurking underneath. We don't even know half of what is lurking in our own oceans for that matter. Pull that thing up and get to land, a lot of work is a head of you. Chime back when your eating dirt, Sergeant."

"Anything changed, Sir?" Denison butts in.

Orson gazes down to his orders. "No, Sergeant. You are take shelter, live off what you can, and hunt down their leader. You are not to reveal your presence by any means."

"What happened in Washington, Sir?" Denison chokes as he holds his tears back.

"Completely wiped out son. General Brinkley has been named President, as he is the next in line for the position. He is well aware of your mission, and is awaiting the outcome, I know it may take some time, but you must hurry before those creatures decide to strike again. All negotiations have failed. We must kill the head of the snake himself, so to speak. Find him, and eliminate him. That is your only order. America is proud of you, son." Orson salutes as he chimes out.

Denison salutes and flicks the button. " You heard the man Azia, what do we need to do to get this thing back in the air?"

Azia crackles through the intercom, "Everything is a go, however the saltiness of the water has rusted the turbines."

"Okay, they still operational?" He replies.

"No, in order for the turbines to run, they will need to manually be scrapped free."

Denison covers his face and rubs his eyes. "Okay, Azia, are your sensors working, are there any forms of life around us?

"Minor fishes from what I have gathered, a man size eel wiggling around the bottom, and that is pretty much from what I have gathered from one thousand meters."

"Okay thanks, Azia." Denison turns toward the cockpit doors and opens a locker. A scuba outfit hangs with a mask and harpoon.

Outside the forty-foot ship the waves clash against the hull. The doors open as Denison emerges in his specialized scuba gear with space mask and spear gun. He drops down on the wing and heads to the rear of the ship. The back end of the ship is similar to the rear end of a corvette. Four turbines with a ventilation exhaust system that sucks air in and purifies it for Denison.

Denison checks his monitor on his wrist. "Air looks breathable." He exclaims as he dips his left finger in the water, then his hand. "Water and air looks fine." He mumbles.

He jumps in. The water turns a murky blue as Denison is the first human to explore Neptune's ocean, but before he could get a look at anything he floated and popped out of the water. He dives down again and struggles to try and swim down and to the rear. As he fights to stay submerged, he gazes at the abundance of fish in the area. Some reasonable similar to our life forms. A trout looking school slither towards Denison then cut away.

Denison breaks the water's surface and climbs into a turbine. He begins to scrape rusted salt off. He slips his mask off, with a big breath, and is relieved he can breathe but with a little wheezing. "Azia, the air is definitely breathable, but it is a bit shallower than earth."

"Yes, according to my calculations from your suit and cross referencing the water and air compared to earth, the water is denser while the air is more shallow."

"Well that explains the struggle of staying submerged." Denison grunts as he chisels salt away. "Done, next turbine." He moves to the next turbine and scrapes with enough force the embedded salt just falls off in clumps. "That’s a lot of salt."

In the cockpit the radar pings with a massive icon heading straight for the ship. Azia crackles in Denison's ear. "Sergeant, there is something large coming slowly towards the ship. Just came into my range. I suggest finishing quickly."

Denison moves to the next turbine and scrapes rapidly. He gets enough off before the ships bounces from a wave and throws Denison into the water, which throws him back up to the surface just as fast. He climbs into the last turbine. He turns to something breaking the water three hundred meters away. Water spews out of the back of something huge. Denison breathes shakily, "Just a whale, just a whale."

The head breaks the surface; the roar was deafening as Denison gazes at the row of sharp teeth. He scrapes the last bit and jumps in swimming back to the wing. He climbs as the creature breaks one hundred meters. "Azia, start it up, heading to the cock pit."

Three turbines kick in with the last one finally breaking free from its' grasp. Denison reaches the cockpit and straps in. Azia chimes in. "Destination?"

"I don't care right now, just get us up." Denison yells.

The turbines glow a bright orange as the ship begins to hover over the water. Denison looks back as the head of the beast emerges looking for its' meal. With a scream, he pulls back on the wheel and the ship thrusts forward, just as the creature crashes down on the ships former resting spot.

"Holy crap." Denison wheezes as he sits climbing altitude. "Azia bring up our landing zone take me there."

"Will do, Sergeant." Azia responds.

The ship sails off in the sky as the beast submerges back down into the depths of the largest body of water in the galaxy. Fish, sharks, eels, and turtles all flood Neptune's oceanic waters. As the beast swims past a bunker with a bubbled dome made of glass, two guards gaze up to the surface. Resembling a balding human, with brownish and gold scaled skin, onyx eyes, crimson armor, and webbed claws, the creatures gaze at one another and growl with ferocious teeth.