Stretching out as far as the eye could see, the perpetual rise and fall of the cerulean dunes continued as it had always done. Heedless of the shoreline, the waves crashed around it, butting into the wood of the pier and catching the glint of sunlight from the orb in the cloudless sky.

Standing with her arms outstretched to either side of her, rocking from the tips of her toes to heels in time with the creaks and groans of timber, Cassandra stood peering down into the waves. Even in the brilliant weather, the waters below still concealed what lay beneath them, obscuring the seabed and any treasures buried just beneath its surface. It was a hard thing to imagine, the shifting sands, the flora and fauna, everything; but it was a good distraction from her growing guilt involving the person behind her.

“I still can’t believe you asked for this,” the figure said right on cue as she hunched over the air compressor, her arms buried in the network of pipes and gears which made up its interior. Even with the goggles and mask covering her face, Cassandra could only imagine the expression of frustration clouding her usually amiable features. Turning around, the feline looked down at her boots, trying to think what to say “Sophia, I did have a permit,” she managed after a few seconds “the guild-”

“Approved your work, I know” finished the figure as she rose up, tugging off the pair of thick gloves and protective mask “just thought I’d remind you. I’m the one who has to pick up the pieces when something goes wrong.” The husky’s albino white fur was streaked with grease stains and grime from prepping the air compressor, at least where it poked out from the padded blue boilersuit identifying her as a part of the engineering corps. “This is the fifth damn time, and we’ve always had something go wrong” she growled.

Much as Cassandra might have wanted to she couldn’t blame Sophia. The Empire’s Guild of Mechateers had dealt with the submitted idea as they had all of them – Paired the inventor who had come up with the idea with a group of engineers. The former was the thinker, the one to come up with the problems, solve them and the latter to deal with the collateral damage, maintenance or problems.

Or at least that was the idea.

While they had little ground to actually reject the project, it was clear none of the Guild’s masters put much stock in the concept of underwater exploration. With so many felines making up the Guild, many were more interested in avoiding water as much as possible not plunging headlong into it. As a result rather than a team only Sophia had been assigned, lumbering her with the workload of a dozen people.

While the initial progress had been promising, that had quickly slowed to a crawl once it had gotten to balancing out internal pressure and maintaining a seal. Something which had strained any potential friendship blossoming between the two. Several breaches in the material during underwater testing had caused the feline inventor to stumble out of the testing pools half drowned. Overcompensation for that problem had required Sophia to drag her ballooned inventor down to earth after malfunctions with the air supplies in the last test.

Cassandra’s face flushed crimson at the memory; with flailing her arms to grab the shut off valve just out of her reach as her expanding suit pulled her higher into the air, then the loud detonation as the compressor’s pipes burst. Unable to keep up with the feline’s requirements it had effectively imploded, setting them back by weeks. Also leaving Sophia with yet another complex machine to repair overnight with minimal supplies.

“I won’t make the same mistake as last time” Cassandra said, shifting uncomfortably inside the thick rubber of her outfit “I know what went wrong, the release valves and they’ve been fixed, we just need one more test.”

The husky arched an eyebrow, showing genuine interest “Just one more?”
“… or three. We um, do need to make sure it’s completely watertight.”

Rolling her eyes skywards, Sophia released a long line of colourful expletives. “Fine,” she eventually managed with a sigh “just let me know once you’re done fooling about and need me to weld things back together.” Before Cassandra could respond, the she turned and stomped off, heading down the pier and back towards the beach. The feline felt a pang of guilt as she watched her go. As much as the might have tried to fault the husky for her frustration, it was hard to blame someone for becoming angry at continually having to clean up after someone else’s mistakes. Despite that, a small part of Cassandra was thankful the engineer was going to vent somewhere else than take it out on her there and then.

Of course, she might not have thought this had she noticed Sophia’s foot nudging an inconspicuously placed pipe trailing from the “air compressor” into the water below as she stormed off.

Re-checking the seals of her gloves, boots and gorget one last, Cassandra activated the compressor. The machine juddered to live, steam whistle sounding off a low hoot to signal its activation and all processes were working fine. It was just as she reached for her helmet that Cassandra realised it wasn’t air it was pumping into her suit.

Yelping in surprise, the feline all but leapt into the air as a jet of water splashed against her tail, drenching her fur in ice-cold liquid. Lumbering around, the inventor reached for the machine’s off-switch, mashing it repeatedly with one gloved hand. For a moment it seemed to respond, halting the stream of water and allowing Cassandra a second’s reprieve before it started again at twice the rate as before. Cassandra’s knees began to buckle as gallons at a time were pumped into her suit, the material creaking loudly with the strain. Already the elastic material was being stretched to breaking point, the tail section drooping against the ground and swelling larger with every passing moment.

Twisting her body frantically, she reached around for the nozzle on her tail and unplug herself from her watery fate, and promptly lost her balance. Toppling forwards, the feline flinched as she landed on her tail and the water exploded inwards. No longer confined to one small area, her suit shook as the small tidal wave sloshed about inside, steadily filling out space. Inch by inch the rubber was stretched outwards, struggling to contain the additional weight and creaking loudly with every drop pumped inside. Sealed in it wasn’t long before it began to stop pressing outwards and start pushing upwards.

Frozen to the spot, half terrified of the idea of water bursting through the already leaking seal around her neck, she could only watch as she felt the pressure building. Her suit’s belly stretching outwards, ballooning as its flat underside gained a spherical roundness, pushing her up into the air. Eyes widening in alarm, Cassandra emitted a loud “EEP!” as she began rocking back and forth, her wobbling form threatening to be tipped into the water’s below. Shoving out a bloated arm for balance she looked once more at the boxy compressor, trying to spot something, anything, which could stop it before something broke. Unsurprisingly the golden plaque labelling it as an “AIR COMPRESSOR” was peeling away, revealing the letters “WA” beneath. No prizes for guessing what the rest of the letters were. Cassandra’s attention wasn’t drawn to that however, instead picking out the small scrap of paper she had failed to notice pinned to the machine’s side:

“And THIS is for ruining a perfectly good air compressor!”

Cassandra had just enough time to read the note before the seals holding back the water finally broke open. With so much water compressed into so little space, any minor weakness would have been enough to release everything. As she craned her neck to read the note past her swollen behind, the trickles of water seeping through became a rush. With one final squeak of protest, the rubber of her gorget ruptured and the diving suit exploded. One moment she was there, the next the sky was raining tattered fragments of rubber and one very soaked, very naked, scarlet faced feline. As she tumbled through the air, crashing headfirst into the sea far from the pier, only one sound could be heard, echoing across the coastline:

“SSSSSOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”