Costa Feed Forever
A story from the currents of Infinite Wild
Infinite Wild is written as a chronological, episodic series. If you have not read any previous stories from the currents, I suggest you start from the beginning.
The Ascension Current swirled and buckled in the atmosphere of Gaziira. Its connection to the Spiral Cathedral on the surface of the planet faded and the various tendrils of flow curled and broke onto one another as the celestial forms separated from one another. Within the chaos of the sacred current, flaming pieces of the destroyed Sustenance glittered on and off. In the bleak glowing light, the silhouettes of corpses washed against one another and cast shadows of the undead. Skulls and bones adorned the bonnies of four viamuertes who led Zubair Costa’s SST through the maelstrom back toward their flagship, Marduk.
On the bridge of the small scraper to surface transport vessel, Zubair Costa did something even he did not expect; he smiled. “Viamuertes, you have done well today. We are free of Costa Feed. There is no need to hide anymore, no need to stay in the shadows. What we need now is visibility and attention. I want as many eyes on us as possible. I can think of no better way than to enter our first float catalog into the Leaderboard.”
“You want us to run routes?” said Marco over his viewscreen. “It’ll slow us down.”
“It will slow you down.” said Zubair. “But not us. I’ll keep Marduk aimed at the Depths, and you all see how much money you can raise. Every new sponsor gets a share of the kobold rights. Minotaur and Manticore will serve you just fine. I imagine having two spacescrapers for a team of viamo… viamuertes will have its advantages. And, we have all the fuel we need.”
“And the depth finders?” asked Marco.
“They’ll stay with Marduk,” said Zubair. “As will the corpses. Plenty of holed to find, yet.”
“The Ex-Orgs will see through you,” said the captured Reina from her seat behind the pilot.
“The Ex-Orgs would all do what I’m doing if they could,” said Zubair, “it’s just that none of them have the will.”
“When I’m free, I’ll make all the currents know what you’re doing,” said Reina.
“Good,” said Zubair. “It will be a fine headline from Reina, the runaway princess and disgruntled employee who was passed over for promotion.”
“You don’t hear it yet, do you?” said Reina. Her ears perked up.
“Hear what?” asked Zubair.
“Flow born,” said Reina. She tightened the straps on her restraints.
The deep rolling roar of a troller engine fired inches over the top of the SST and the blazing tail of a depth ship shot out ahead of the viewshield.
“That’s my ship,” said Zubair. “Viamuertes!”
Marco pulled on his crossbar and Xavier, Igor, and Anselme adjusted their formation to follow the speeding bonnie. “On it. Currents coming toward us, he will have burned out that troller catching up.”
“Good,” said Zubair, “it’s a pity his career will be cut so short.”
