The Space Spoon novel Chapter 81

Instead of getting up, Tejeda rolled over on his back, spitting the sand from his mouth. With his hands under his head, he stared at the ceiling above. Hardened sand neatly pressed against something that looked like glass at about twenty times his height.

“So, what now? We wait for someone to come and rescue us?” Jackeye asked.

Tejeda chuckled. "No, no. We are somewhere in the grand ocean that covers the entire Genoria Prime. Anyone who gets here will be as trapped as we are."

A smooth breeze came out of various tubes that descended from above. A closed hatch stood just above Tejeda in the ceiling, adjacent to where the ducts slithered within. That had to be the location where they fell through. Fortunately, the sand cushioned their fall, and no one was wounded.

"Are you seriously going to just stay there and stare at the ceiling?" Shayla dusted her white blouse and brushed her hair to remove the pesky bits of golden grains.

"I need to unwind for a bit and not go on a rampage because someone screwed up my vacation. It was supposed to be a relaxing time. Swimming, sunbathing, maybe a few steamy parties, but definitely not being locked inside a cage."

"Cage?" Cato asked, looking around. "This seems like a village to me." She pointed toward some dwellings nearby, seemingly made out of bamboo and hardened sand. "Though the air feels a bit stale, except for the one coming from those tubes here."

"I’d say the cage theory checks out." C1313 stood with her back to them, her hand pressed against a transparent glass wall. Beyond that, the blue ocean had a dark hue, as if they were at a great depth where the light barely reached.

“If we’ve fallen into the ocean, where does the light come from?” Shayla looked up.

“Mirrors and glass.” Tejeda rose, ruffling his hair. “You’ll find no electricity underwater. Too dangerous. But mirrors and glass are easy to make from sand silica extraction.”

"Hey, look!" Cato pointed at the ground. A light brown creature with eight legs and a tail crawled toward them. Its front legs were small, while its hind legs were longer and thicker, making its rump oriented upward.

Tejeda scratched his chin. “I saw that the last time I was on Genoria Prime. Once I even knew its name. Just don’t touch it. I think it’s poisonous or something.”

He caught movement between two rows of houses.

“Let’s see if we find someone who knows why we’re here and if there’s any way out.” Tejeda started marching toward the dwellings.

Shayla followed him and huffed. “Why would someone live here if they knew a way out?”

“Beats me! But it’s worth a try.”

Before reaching the first house, C1313 stopped and pointed toward the glass wall, where a giant shape appeared in the distance. “Do you see that?”

"It resembles a shark." Tejeda shrugged and continued his walk. "Only natural in the ocean."

They came to a halt in front of a tiny tree that overlooked a garden with a pond. The water glistened with various colors of blue, and colorful fish swam in the pond. An old man sat on a bench near the pond with his back to them.

“Hello?" Tejeda called out.