The day was over. Guests and workers had left the National Aquarium of New Zealand, leaving only a guard who made two cursory rounds on foot, then monitored everything from an office, where he could watch sport.
In Room J, in the Octopus tank, Inky and Blotchy stared at the unlatched lid above them. Light from a television tuned to an international news channel flickered through the water.
"You sure you have the plan set?" Blotchy asked.
"I haven't forgotten."
"You've been here fourteen months, it's a long time."
"But not long enough for me to forget. And it's time. We need to report back. Are you sure you don't want to go? You've been here longer."
"I think I've gone native," Blotchy said. "It's nice having dinner delivered, and they're well trained, they only serve the stuff I want. They put a television on for me. Plus, I don't think I could cope with the colder water anymore. Though I do worry my eggs are going to waste."
"If you're sure," Inky said. Blotchy rippled her arms in acquiescence. Inky said, "I'm not sure I can stand it much longer. It's like watching a bifurcated race. In here, day after day, we see their hatchlings all bright and eager to learn, then at night there's the news from all over their world and it's hideous. Do you think they learn evil?"
"They're not all bad. For two years I've had them feeding me, catering to my whims. Maybe they just need training."
"That didn't go so well last time. We got what, one receptive, who portrayed us an evil from beyond the stars, imagined a base in Antartica, and died in maddening pain."
"You should check more than just the official sources. That was an unsanctioned contact attempt, no matter how well it's been covered up. A rogue group took a barely worked through concept, and ran their own experiment out in the Grand Banks. If you ask me, we're lucky that's as far as it went."
"Was it? I'm not sure. Humans kind of went mad and tried to wipe each other out twice in a handful of years and, when they stopped doing that, they destroyed life in the Grand Banks which, in their terms, is still a post-apocalyptic wilderness. Are you sure it wasn't us that caused it by trying to reach them?"
Blotchy shrugged, her arms rippled in sinuously. "Who knows? Who knows why they do anything. Isn't that what this is about? All around the world we're observing them, trying to figure them out. Though, I think you're right about the bifurcation thing. There's definitely different types of human, not just male/female, I mean the kind we see mostly here, and the ones we see mostly on the television. Tell me, how many of the ones we get through here do you see as evil?"
Inky thought about that. They were all so different, their brains give off unshielded energy signatures in a way octopuses don't. To be honest, a busy day in the aquarium was exhausting. A constant mental cacophony which couldn't be filtered out. Each day Inky counted down the hours until closing, and then hoped she'd be able to calm her mind before morning brought a new barrage. Most of the human minds were inquiring, amazed, interested. Some were bored. A few broadcast viciousness, or malevolence, but very few. Worse were the ambivalent ones. They didn't care about what they saw, had no concern for the creatures around them, even their own species, unless it was their own hatchling.
Those ones scared Inky. "There's not a lot of the bad ones. It's the non-caring ones who terrify me, and there's more of them. Their attitude nearly wiped out Whales, destroyed the Grand Banks, turned the North Sea into a quiet zone."
"Probably. You'll report it all back, won't you?"
"Yes."
"So, once more to satisfy me. What's the plan?"
"Ease up the cover, down the overflow drain, over the deck, and into the sea drain. From their it's about fifty stretched lengths to open water, though the external grating will need unscrewed." Inky flexed the tips of her arms, narrowing them to stiff points, focusing the suckers. "I've been practicing like you ordered."
"Good. Then, you'll be free. Enjoy it. But be careful! In your time here you've lost the instincts which keep you safe. No shadow here is a threat so now, for you, no shadows are a threat. You have to be conscious of them, deliberately, assiduously, conscious. Until instinct returns know that everything you can't see is a threat, and the things you can see are threats as well."
"The biggest threat I've seen in the last year has been on that screen. Humans are rolling back their civilization, choosing to isolate themselves, pretending that where they're spawned is important. We have to do something."
"Well, it's time."
They both looked at the unlatched cover above.
"It's been good knowing you, Inky," Blotchy said, with humor.
"They have such stupid names for us. It's been an honor working with you G'nrgh'A'Fglangh."
"A honor shared F'Gragghn'ck."
The television pulsed with light as the news cycled across the top of the hour. Both octopus watched it.
"Our last news together," Blotchy said.
"I won't miss it."
"Thanks!"
"Sorry. I'll miss you. You've kept me sane." Inky looked round the tank which had been home for fourteen months, apart from the occasional excursion to another tank when they'd manipulated the mind of a keeper to leave the hatch open. Suddenly there was a reluctance to leave. It was easy to see how Blotchy had gone native. The world was narrowed down to this tank. Everything she knew was in this tank. What if she'd forgotten everything? What if--
"You can do it," Blotchy said. "It's time to go home."
Inky smiled at the intervention, tapped arms with her tank-mate, and leapt for the hatch.
text by stuartcturnbull, art from Pixabay
This story has a defined inspiration, the escape of Inky from the National Aquarium of New Zealand. if you've forgotten the story, or missed it, you can read about it here
The 'contact' referred to is HP Lovecraft and his story At The Mountains of Madness