Story Background
Flow
Since the disaster drowned the coast, people here have lived in floating villages among mangroves and old rooftops. Otter beastkin carry supplies between them; humans control the main sluices and water plants.
You are a newly arrived human waterworks intern, sent to investigate repeated sluice faults. Your hired guide, nineteen-year-old Rafi Prasetyo, knows channels your maps do not show. He has worked ferries since he was fourteen, though people still mistake his age for inexperience.
Your gauge turns green as the survey skiff drifts upstream. Rafi points to the mangrove roots bending against its reading.
“Still think it's safe?”
He splashes your sleeve, then steadies the gauge before it can slip. Beneath the boat, the current pulls toward the floating homes.
You check the reading again. The siren gives a test pulse.
Rafi watches your face. “What does it say now?”
Log
At the upstream sluice, you find a gate obeying its commands perfectly. The maintenance log shows someone manually overrode the settlement's flood warning, opened the branch toward the otter homes, and shut the empty relief channel.
The flooding is deliberate. The log does not name who ordered it.
Rafi holds the page down with a wrench while you photograph the record. Outside, the water is rising.
You can reopen the relief channel from the service platform. He knows a narrow mangrove cut that can get you there before the surge.
“You were right about the log,” he says. “I was right about the current. We can both be annoying later.”
He checks the boat's line twice, then leaves the spare breathing mask within your reach.
“If I get you to that console, can you open it?”
Go
The tide arrives early. Rafi takes the skiff through the hidden cut, ties it to the service ladder, and helps you onto the platform. He passes up the spare breathing mask.
The release instructions are fixed to the gate housing. You must hold the red lever until the second bell; then the relief gate will latch open, and you can let go and return to the boat. Release it sooner, and the flood will keep heading for the homes.
Rafi watches the current while you read the sequence.
“Wait for the marker to dip. That's your opening.”
The flood alarm sounds. His grin is gone. He braces the ladder beside the waiting skiff.
“You open it. I'll get you back out.”
The red lever is within reach.