Several yards in, I saw tiny fish gliding down a dimly lit hall, a corridor filled with water. My screen materialized and dissipated, destroyed by the water, useless. I kicked harder and shoved kelp aside. Within moments, I veered right and went through another entrance, hoping that this poorly lit room, a place filled with waist-high piles of kelp, was X41’s bridge.

Beneath me, indigo-green vines rose and started wrapping around my leg. Not wanting the Ro15 to hear me, I grabbed my air gun—a quieter weapon that fired razor sharp v-shaped blades—and squeezed the trigger, several times. They hit the vines. Just a few came off. I lowered my left hand, the one that wasn’t holding the gun, and said, “KN.” A power-knife, a weapon with moving teeth along both edges, popped out of my left sleeve. I started cutting other vines with it. In moments, they fell off.

Kelp moved toward me and wrapped around my left wrist. I aimed, squeezed the trigger, several times, and hit some. I stuck out my hand and ripped the rest off. Soon, rockweed started crawling, headed for my ankle. I aimed down and pulled the trigger. I struck the rockweed squarely, and it came off my ankle. I bumped against waist-high kelp, but it did nothing. I passed it by.

In front of me, a mound of vines rose. Suddenly, I realized the mound was on my chair. This was the bridge. I had found it!

A crab-like creature jumped out of the mound. I blinked, surprised as the crustacean swam away. Beneath the flashlight beam, a plant like sea staghorn slithered around my waist. I stopped, trapped, then I aimed down and pulled the trigger. I hit the staghorn, but it didn’t move. I started cutting it with the knife as the kelp began coiling around my right arm. Within seconds, vines started coiling around my legs until it was impossible to move either one!

“X forty-one, it’s Fiman. Help me,” I said, speaking within my mind.

Silence. It wouldn’t respond.