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Title: Butterfly Fish
Butterfly Fish and its characters, settings, and plot are mine. Please do not take, alter, distribute, or archive without my permission.
A flash of yellow and black caught my eye that morning, swirling amongst the drab little birds that normally gathered around the feeders. It was gone as soon as I tried to look closer, flickering at the edges of my vision- hiding. I could hear the whir of wings, like a hummingbird but more metallic. I knew that sound. I knew where that sound came from and I had hoped to never hear it again. It didn’t belong here.
I upturned my laptop and morning coffee in my haste to get outside before it could escape. I didn’t bother closing the sliding glass door, focused instead on catching a better glimpse of what I thought I’d seen. There was a clatter of metal behind me as the only other resident of my house, Hanai, came tumbling outside after me.
“Kaily?” he called worriedly, his young voice dropping mid-word when he saw the way I stood stock-still in the middle of the yard. My heart was thrumming wildly in my chest- what was it doing here? “What is it?”
Giving him the slightest roll of my shoulder for a response, I focused my near-panicked attention on spotting the elusive creature. It had been there only a few seconds ago; I had seen it so clearly through the back window that I knew I couldn’t be mistaken. This time it was not my eyes playing tricks on me. This time, it was all too real.
“Kaily!” Hanai called, drawing my attention to him. A blur of yellow, black, and white zipped past where he hung over the edge of the deck railing, pointing.
I bolted for the front yard after it as fast as my legs would carry me. It could not be allowed to leave the premises. There would be hell to pay if it did. There was no telling why it was here, what it was doing so far from where it belonged, but if it got back with the data it had collected, I would be found. I forcefully pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind as I passed my car and came out into the open again.
My eyes widened as I caught full sight of it for the first time in years.
Forcipiger Flavissimus.
Long-nosed butterfly fish.
It moved through the air as though it were in water, tail flicking and mechanical fins swirling. I could see the row of spikes along its back where they lay flat, and the unusual mouth at the end of its long, thin snout. It stilled, hanging delicately in mid-air a few feet away from me as though it were waiting for something. Time seemed to slow, my past catching up with me as we stared at one another.
It had been years…
My brain ground into motion again and I extended my hand, eyes wide, heart fluttering as I watched the little pseudo-fish hover uncertainly in the air. It started at the motion and for a second I thought it would flee. But it remained deathly still except for the tiny, flickering motions of its fins. I calmed my breathing, swallowing against the way my heart had leapt into my throat at the sight of it. Ever-so-cautiously it moved forward, gently touching the tip of its little snout to the ends of my fingers. I felt the barest of nibbles and a faint, bittersweet smile on my lips.
Years…
“Kaily?”
It couldn’t stay, but I couldn’t let it leave.
“Get some water,” I told Hanai in a dead-serious voice, not taking my eyes from the creature as it began examining my hand as though looking for food. It wasn’t, but I wouldn’t grant it what it actually wanted. “Go quickly now, before it escapes.”
“Kaily… fish don’t fly…”
“Just do it, please. The rest can wait. The basin out back should do.”
Scampering back from me, he hesitated only a moment to stare. I watched out of the corner of my eye as he left, hurrying around the side of the house to get the metal basin I kept in the backyard. It often collected rainwater and was just the right size for him to carry. As soon as he was gone, I returned my attention to the mockery of a fish that hovered before me.
My heart beat tightly in my chest as I looked upon my past. The creature before me was a miniature artificial intelligence unit, the design for which had been created over thirty years prior. Behind the innocent lips at the end of its beak lay a data port capable of transferring hundreds of gigabytes of information in a matter of seconds. In the web of spines along its dorsal ridge lay several antennae, transmitting and receiving data from the fish’s base unit. Behind and under its fins were tiny, whirling generators to keep it airborne and the black patches over its eyes and tail were solar panels to keep it going. The black spot at the base of its tail pushed in for access to a manual power inlet, in case it should need to function indoors.
I knew, quite unfortunately, because I had designed it myself.
The bang and scrape of tin against cement interrupted my spiraling thoughts as Hanai lumbered around the side of the house, half carrying and half dragging the basin he’d been sent to fetch. Startling, the fish swirled around us and for a second I thought it would flee. “That’s good enough,” I said anxiously as soon as I could be heard over the boy’s efforts. “Thank you, Hanai.”
“Now what?” he asked curiously, edging as close to us as he dared.
I wiggled my fingers slowly in the air and the motion immediately stopped the fish’s wild, dizzying flight around us. It flickered back and forth, eyeing my fingers as though it weren’t quite sure what to do next. I stilled and held my breath, waiting. If I was right, it would know that motion… it would still come to it, despite the programming that might have told it to leave earlier.
It could have been anyone’s pet, I told myself, trying to stay as calm as possible as I waited, trying to ignore the cold dread that crept over my skin. I could still be completely wrong. AI units were everywhere these days, if one could believe the paper.
It could have been anyone’s.
But I knew better. It could have been anyone’s, but it wasn’t.
Ever-so-slowly it approached my fingers again and my heart sank. It wasn’t just anyone’s pet because pets didn’t look for data ports at the fingertips of their owners like this one was doing; only his creations knew to do that. Only Caveroth’s AI animal units were programmed to attempt to access the finger-bound data ports of his AI humans.
I brought my hands down until the fish was forced close enough for me to grab. Darting up with both hands, I snatched it from the air and held tight. It struggled, whirring and chirruping as though it could get away from me. I took two strides toward the basin and swiftly dunked the fish into it. Releasing my struggling victim, I stepped back and Hanai was quick to follow my example.
It sparked and floundered in the water, trying desperately to get past the surface, tiny mouth and fins working furiously. Hanai’s fingers tightened in my shirt sleeve as he watched, wide-eyed. My breath caught in my throat as we waited. When it finally shuddered to a motionless end, I reached down and gingerly lifted it from the basin. It twitched feebly in my hands as I turned it over, wiping a finger over the smooth white area along the bottom jaw. A tiny latch caught and lifted, exposing a thin, silky looking tab with writing on it. I pulled it out fully and read along the length before handing it to Hanai.
“If found,” he read quietly, “please return.” He squinted at the writing that followed, nose crinkling as he tried to continue reading. “I think the rest is German?”
My laugh was nothing short of bitter as I glanced around the front yard. “No, but that’s close.”
“How do we return it if it doesn’t have an address?” he asked confusedly.
I took the fish-shaped messenger machine from him, tossing it neatly back into the water before turning away from the basin. Tilting my head back and raising one hand to shield my eyes from the sun, I scanned the sky for any sign of life. Where there was one, there would be others. Those fish were not programmed to operate this far away from Caveroth; not without help. There was only one other I knew of that could bring the oddity this far without damage. The butterfly fish had always followed him before now, where-ever he went. They would ignore direct orders just to cloud around behind him.
He was here.
“We don’t.” I raised my voice, allowing irritation to seep thickly into my tone. “You’d better show yourself before I have to go looking, you silly bird.”
There was a laugh from behind us and I whirled around to see. Perched on a low branch of one of the oak trees in my front yard was a man. He wore thin, loose pants in the same shade of blue as you’d find at a hospital. His shaggy, sand-colored hair was tied back with what looked like the cinch string from the waistband of those pants. He gave us both a smile that lit up his brilliantly green eyes and leaned forward on the branch as if he were going to fall.
But he didn’t.
Silky white wings rustled opened from behind him, spreading wide as they caught the air. He dropped quickly and landed lightly on the ground before me, more of a glide than true flight. When I made no move to react, Hanai stared passively at the man, as if he saw this sort of thing every day. I felt the lump of dread from earlier settling stubbornly in my stomach as the winged man approached but I tried my best to keep it from showing. I settled back on one foot, taking weight off the other as I crossed my arms and gave him a very dull look.
“Ark,” I said in the pleasant sort of voice that was anything but pleasant. “What a surprise. How did you get out?”
He smiled winningly as he took a few more delicate steps toward me, wings snapping closed. “I flew, of course.”
“Of course,” I said flatly. “What are you doing here?”
“Where else was I supposed to go, Mana?” he asked plaintively, stopping where he stood to give me a hurt look.
“Don’t call me that,” I said sullenly. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
“I’m lucky I made it this far!” he returned. “Do you know how hard it was to find you?”
A muscle in my jaw jumped at the words. “I hope it was hell!” I ground out. “I hope nothing has ever been as hard as it was for you to find me because god help us both if he can do the same.” There was no doubt about whom I meant; Caveroth.
His demeanor dropped only slightly, but his voice became a murmur. “He can’t.” Eyes to the ground, he sighed. “I followed the receiver you took when you left. My receiver. He doesn’t… have a copy.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, hoping to sound resolved on the matter in a way I certainly wasn’t. “I don’t care what you’ve gone through or how hard it was or why you did it. Even if he can’t find me the way you did, he can find you easily. You need to leave.”
“I’m not leaving,” he said seriously. “You’re the only one who can help. I need you,” he whispered. “I need what you know.” My eyes closed as he spoke, his words digging deeply into old wounds; ones I had thought long healed.
“Kaily?”
Groaning, I looked briefly to Hanai, who still stood curiously at my side. I did not need to be giving this sort of exposure to him right now. “Hanai, I need you to do me a favor. Find a top and seal that basin closed. Whatever you do, don’t let that fish get out, understand?”
“It can’t get out,” he said, eyeing me like I’d gone mad. “It’s broken, isn’t it?”
“I know it looks that way but you can never be sure. It won’t hurt you; I just don’t want it to get away- not yet. Understand?”
He nodded after a few seconds and hurried off to follow my orders. Taking an uneasy breath, I turned back to Ark and gave him a scathing look. “Fine then. Let’s… take a walk, shall we?”
He nodded gravely and began to head down the drive toward the dirt road, folding his hands behind his back like a little kid. His overly large steps, exaggerated on purpose, revealed that he’d been lacking shoes for quite some time. The bottoms of his feet were scraped and raw looking and for a moment I thought to offer him shoes but the feeling passed. I had to make him leave before his presence caused irrevocable damage.
It wasn’t like he felt the pain anyway.
“Not yet?” Ark asked in a bemused tone as soon as we were a good distance away from the house and heading toward a fenced in field down the road. “Does that mean you’re planning on letting it go?”
“Don’t be stupid. Even if it’s broken, Caveroth is going to know where that thing is the second he looks for it. You can bet he already knows where you are.” I refused to look at him, brow furrowing in frustration. “You can’t stay here, Ark. There’s too much going for me here to mess it up by taking you in right now.”
“I don’t know where else to go, what else to do.” He followed me half a step behind, head bent, steps slowing. “You’re the only person I know in the world out here. In case you forgot, I don’t exactly fit in with humans.”
“That’s because you’re not human,” I told him sharply, wincing internally at the unnecessary tone. It wasn’t his fault he wasn’t human, I reminded myself.
It was mine.
