Holdfast (part one‪)‬

Forced below the waves by a hostile climate, humanity lives in undersea colonies, each their own city-state.

Calder dreams of making it rich while he hunts for rare items in the darkness of the Holdfast, the twisted remains of old ships that form the foundations of his colony. He's accompanied by a girl called Trice, a fellow scavenger.

When they stumble across some slavers smuggling out drugged captives, Trice ignores his advice and decides to rescue one of them, a young woman. Little did she know the trouble it would bring,

Can they evade their pursuers, who seem desperate to get the girl back, and return her to her family, members of the colony's rich and powerful? Even if they succeed, what will their heroics cost them?

This is a novella of ~22,000 words (72 pages)