Chapter 287: Please Spit Out the Contractor

I split into twelve bodies inside the repair cage, which gave me twelve excellent views of the same terrible career decision. The smaller forms found gaps between the bent bars while the throat-gorger tried to pull the whole frame farther down its mouth.

Three copies braced beneath the service housing, four followed the tether towards the release pin and the rest spread through the cage to keep its loose sections from snagging each other. Galaxy Brain handled every view at once, timing each pull without confusion while I considered invoicing twelve people for the same awful working conditions.

[System: Keep all twelve moving, mate, because this pub doesn’t serve missing persons and I haven’t got enough koala claws for a bloody recount. Last thing I need is explaining to Lyra why part of you’s still on the menu.]

If any part of me resigns, I’m making it serve the notice period in here with the rest of us. The copy nearest the release found the pin bent against its bracket, too tight for one five-inch body to shift without assistance.

I brought two more alongside it and used the remaining cage bar as a lever. The metal moved a little, then stopped when the creature flexed around us, forcing every copy to cling to something solid instead of becoming a very small collection of regrets.

Sera killed the nearest pump for three seconds. The sudden drop in pull gave us enough slack to lever the pin free, and the broken support separated from the frame with a jolt that threw one copy against the service housing.

I felt the impact and caught that body with another before it drifted away. Multitude did not make damage disappear into twelve convenient accounts, and I had no intention of testing what happened if I returned with eleven bodies and an optimistic explanation.

The detached support slid towards the throat. I let it go while guiding the remaining cage section against the tether, rotating the frame enough to reveal the narrow water outlet along the creature’s inner cheek.

The opening was small, wet and lined with unpleasant moving folds, but it led towards the gills rather than deeper into the animal. I gathered the copies along the tether and sent them through in a steady order, refusing to rush the count just because the surroundings were disgusting.

All twelve reached the outer side of the gill cover. I reunited beneath its hard edge and felt the welcome return of one properly sized body, along with the less welcome return of every ache I had been too busy to complain about separately.

"I’m outside the mouth, love, and I’d like to retire the phrase outside the mouth from all future job descriptions," I told Sera through the recovered cage radio. "You can write it once you’re clear," Sera replied, "because you’re still wearing the bloody fish and I’m not accepting a resignation from inside its gills."

I pushed clear of the gill cover and reached the wall ladder while the throat-gorger shook the broken frame loose. The creature’s body filled most of the channel, leaving a hard rush of water between its side and the intake wall.

The upper service lock was close enough to reach, and I considered leaving the rest to people with proper equipment. Then Sera showed me the pressure warning on the lock’s display, along with the ward that would lose safe flow if the grid failed.

Some residents needed flooded rooms, some needed air and many needed working boundaries between the two. A broken intake would not be one dramatic wave followed by applause; it would turn ordinary homes into the wrong place to breathe.

[System: Your big payout needs a working intake, champ, not a lovely story about how you personally escaped. The ugly bit of finishing a job is that occasionally the job is still fucking there.]

I rescued the crew and I’m still on shift, so remind me to start charging by the mouthful. I asked Sera what the crew used when a large obstruction reached the grid, and she brought up the emergency cutting gate above the narrowest part of the channel.

The gate could close on machinery or trapped debris, but its motor had been isolated during the maintenance work. A manual chain remained inside the inspection chamber, reachable through an air-filled access pocket above the water line.

That gave me somewhere my fin jets would actually help. I swam up the ladder, pulled through the inspection opening and lifted into the dry chamber, enjoying the simple pleasure of being airborne without first asking a fish to release me.

The chain housing was jammed by a safety catch that needed releasing at the channel side. Sera could control the flow remotely, but the catch required somebody to be beside the gate when the load came off it, which returned the difficult part of the plan to me.

I checked Nuh-Uh and found the eight minutes since the tow rescue nearly finished. There would be enough time for one physical brace if I waited for Sera’s signal, but no heat immunity, pressure miracle or spare activation hidden behind the menu.

Tollan confirmed that nearby lanes were closed and the ward crews were moving residents away from the vulnerable sections. They were doing the ordinary work that gave my stupid plan room to succeed, and I found that more reassuring than somebody announcing I was their only hope.

The throat-gorger struck the grid before we could set the sequence. Metal screamed through the channel, and its head pushed into the narrowing opening beneath the cutting gate, exactly where the current should have carried water instead of an enormous hungry mistake.

Sera swore as the ward pressure began reversing. I looked down through the inspection window and saw the first stream surge the wrong way around the creature’s jaw, pulling loose tools towards the homes we were supposed to be protecting.

The cutting gate had the monster where we needed it, but its head was now holding the intake open while the pressure climbed. Sera told me we had one controlled flow change left before the safety system locked us out and chose which neighbourhood would take the damage.