The Bay of Hydra

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Greetings to everyone, the following story was inspired by the digital art of @xpilar, I invite you to visit his blog. The picture that motivated this story is the following.



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The Bay of Hydra

The boat moved along the route, marked by a series of small indicators that seemed to float on the placid waters of the bay. It was one of the hundred self-guided boats that made their way, transporting tourists who visited the Bay of the Hydra, to the northeast of the planet's eastern continent.

-Heracles was one of the first planets colonized by the humans of Perseus, when they began their expansion, this was before the Law of Preservation of Forms of Native Life - Leopoldo explained, to the twenty occupants of the ship -. When it was colonized in the already existed their known forests, both on land and on the ocean floor, however, there were no animals, at least not known ... - ended saying in mysterious tone.

-Is it true that in this bay several ships and boats have disappeared? -Suddenly asked a boy of about twelve, who was sitting in the first row of seats, just in front of Leopold.

-That's part of the mystery of this bay, -replied Leopold, approaching the boy -. Since the beginning of the terraformation of the planet, strange things have happened here, it is said that several of the robots disappeared here, while they were working on the adaptation of the planet, - he explained, leaning to see more closely the face of the child, who looked at him with an expression of astonishment. Also, several of the exploration boats disappeared, even, when this attraction began, two of the first transports sank simultaneously, and only three of their occupants managed to save themselves, they returned talking about something halo them towards the depths, that they saw tentacles coming out of the water and catching them.

The boy backed back in his seat, as his eyes opened like two huge plates. Leopold stood up and went on with his story, not without first looking at the faces of those present and seeing the attention they were paying him.

-The bay was formed about three hundred million years ago, when an object hit the planet in this place, experts say it was a comet, but there is a rumor that when you started with the terraformation, the devices found in the background a gigantic metal object and after that began to occur disappearances.

-Did they never discover what it was? -asked someone from one of the rows at the bottom.

-No, and every probe they sent there was deactivated before reaching the place where the object is supposed to be.

-Have they not used ultrasound or anything else to see the object? -asked a girl with a face of disbelief sitting almost in the middle of the group.

-Yes, but nothing has been seen, the ultrasound hasn't worked, and the neutrino emitters show only an oval-shaped vacuum, about a hundred metres in diameter.

He approached the railing and pointed in the direction of one of the flat plateaus protruding from the water, the product of millions of years of soil erosion at the base of the crater.

-In that direction, in front of that plateau, is the center of the bay. Right under that place, that's where it is.

Several of the attendees stood up, so that they could take a better look at the place pointed out by Leopold. Most of them approached the railing to keep him company, while he continued to talk about the disappearances, about strange lights that appeared at night and of thunders that were heard occasionally and did not seem to have a known origin.

When he had been talking for several minutes and everyone was contemplating the water and the peculiar formations of plateaus that surrounded the bay, the transport began to shake, at the same time that great waves were forming just in the direction Leopold had pointed out moments before. Many clung to what they could so as not to lose their balance and fall to the ground, Leopold himself looked astonished in the direction of the center of the bay, while gushes of water flowed causing the waves that shook the boat.

Then, amid shouts of astonishment and fear, the strange figure of a gigantic articulated steel claw emerged from the water, followed by the bulbous oval body of a colossal ship from the bottom of which, like tentacles, hung dozens of articulated arms, so that they seemed to be excavating shovels at their ends.

The ship rose some thirty metres above the surface of the water, and then moved away, in the middle of a great roar, in a southern direction, towards where the hangars of the park's maintenance machinery were located.

Leopold, with his face unstuck and pale as paper and almost breathless, began to make gestures, calling to calm the people who were agitated by the incident.

-It's all right, -he said, as the color returned to his face and the air regained -. Don't be afraid, this is one of the maintenance ships that is digging in the bottom of the bay to install a network of guides, to create new routes for transport.

The stories about the Bay of the Hydra, were known in all the colonized worlds, and made it one of the main tourist attractions of Heracles, nobody knew how they had originated, but with the passing of time they grew and became more intriguing and mysterious, mainly adorned by the promoters of the tourist strolls and propagated by those who visited the site.

Although the bay had been originated by the impact of a comet, three hundred million years ago and its peculiar geography was due to the erosion caused by the ocean, no ship or boat had ever disappeared in it and the only two ships that ever crashed in it, was due to a collision between them, at the beginning of the attraction, incident in which nobody had been injured and was the incentive for the automation of transport.

Text of @amart29 Barcelona, Venezuela, December 2019

Other stories from the Time and Space series

I can only thank @xpilar for allowing me to use his digital art in my publication and for motivating my creation. Thank you very much @xpilar

Thank you all for visiting my publication, I hope your comments and I appreciate your support, until next time






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