Dark Life

Ty and Gemma arrive at the Peaveys’ homestead to find the house collapsing. They hide until the Specter, the Seablite Gang’s ship, leaves.

Shula Peavey has gotten her unconscious husband, Lars, into their ship. She’s trying to save their animals. They can’t afford to replace them and the unsalvageable losses are already too great.

The three manage to get all the goats and chickens into both ships. Ty sends Shurl and Gemma back to his home. He will stay behind to try to figure out what’s wrong with the power and whether he can fix it. He grabs a mantaboard and escapes the structure just before it collapses and Gemma speeds away.

Ty hears warning calls from the dolphins and learns that sharks are coming to feed on the dying fish. He realizes something is nearby and tries to hide in the kelp right as the power suddenly turns back on. Ty sees a body ahead of him. He realizes it is not a body. It is Shade, the leader of the Seablite Gang.

Shade watches Ty as if Shade is judging whether to bother with him. When a school of fish gets between them, Ty speeds his mantaboard away. Partway back home, though, anger replaces Ty’s fear. He knows catching the Seablite Gang is nearly impossible unless they can find their hideout, so he turns back to follow Shade. He follows Shade to a steep cliff, then uses Shade’s headlamp as a guide. The light suddenly goes out. Shade appears near Ty, having realized Ty was following him. Ty tries to get away, but Shade uses his harpoon gun to hit Ty’s mantaboard with a chained harpoon and starts pulling Ty closer. Ty releases his boots and swims away, using his smaller size and lack of a heavy gun to escape.

Ma is waiting for Ty when he returns, launching into a lecture as soon as he appears. Doc steps in to reassure her, and to Ty’s surprise, Ma leaves it alone, heading back into the house.

Doc wants to check Ty out, pulling out the device to check vitals. Ty panics when he does so. Doc reassures Ty that as a doctor, he can’t share personal information. Further, while Ty is under 18, Doc insists he would not share information even with Ty’s parents. Ty ignores this and leaves Doc to join the rest of the family and his neighbors.

Zoe and Gemma are cheering Hewitt up, wearing artifacts from Ty’s room and examining Zoe’s large collection of sea creatures in tanks around her room.

When Pa returns, he tells Ty he is proud of him for doing an adult’s work that day. Ty knows he would not be so happy if he knew how far Ty had followed a criminal.

Shurl insists everyone wears one of Ty’s artifacts to celebrate the fact that they’re all okay, power has returned to the house, and they haven’t lost much in the attack. Pa still does not know how the gang would have caused such a power outage.

Ma, Pa, and Doc share news of the meeting at the Trade Station with Shurl. Ma and Pa declare that the pioneers won’t be able to last more than a couple of weeks on their current supplies without Commonwealth support. Ma thinks that many pioneers will start to reconsider whether they remain subsea. Ty feels his future as a pioneer with his own land slipping away.

Ty’s family and Gemma join the Peaveys in putting their home back together, with the first day’s task being reinflating the house.

An octopus Zoe saved grabs Gemma’s arm and frightens her. Gemma flings it across the room, calling it names when Zoe gets mad at her. Zoe’s anger flares, and Ty jumps in between the two while Hewitt yells for everyone to get out of the water. Ty convinces Zoe to leave it be because Gemma is a Topsider who does not know better. Ty and Hewitt clearly expect some kind of attack from Zoe.

The group gathers around a heater to rest. When Gemma asks about the name of the Seablite Gang, Doc shares that the name comes from the prison they escape: Seablite Prison. Doc tells the story of their mysterious escape. No unlocked or broken doors, guards mysteriously asleep, and the cameras were off for the same 20 minutes.

Everyone is frightened by the revelation of a prison in pioneer territory kept secret by the Commonwealth. Gemma suggests the gang members might have Dark Gifts, but Pa and Ty dismiss the theory and deny the existence of Dark Gifts. Doc seems to think it might be possible and turns to Zoe, asking if she has anything to share. Ty distracts everyone with a joke about her gift being picking her nose with her tongue. Doc doesn’t seem convinced, even when Zoe takes the hint and adds to the joke.

Later, Ty leaves out the spoiled food for the crabs. He sees Gemma wave to him from the building and then point behind him in shock. Ty turns around to find the sub they had both explored the previous day floating along the canyon.

Ty is interrogated by his father about the submarine and his dangerous solo visit to Coldsleep Canyon. Ty finds Gemma in his room with Hewitt, talking about the boy that a Topsider doctor had claimed had a Dark Gift.

Gemma asks to speak to Ty somewhere privately. On their way to the greenhouse, Ty overhears his parents arguing. Ma is furious, arguing that they need to leave and go back Topside. Ty is taking too many risks, and the settlement is becoming more and more dangerous. She thinks it already attracts more people with alcohol and gambling addictions than settlers, and now the Seablite Gang has made it more dangerous. Pa disagrees, arguing that a life of living in cramped space with “no room to explore or dream” (53) would be worse for their children.

In the greenhouse, Gemma asks Ty to take her to the saloon to try to find her brother. Ty doesn’t want to risk convincing his parents that they should go Topside by breaking another rule, and he knows the saloon doesn’t allow anyone under 18. Gemma believes he could pass for 18 and take her inside. She shares her story. Her brother was sent to a juvenile delinquent facility for “stealing time” while working so that he and Gemma could spend time together. She admits she has escaped from the home several times. Ty decides he cannot refuse her request.