Dark Life

Ty and Gemma stand by the elevator in the Trade Station. He tries to convince her to stay away from the saloon and watch the prospectors that go inside, but she points out that there are men already in the saloon that she would not see that way.

As a man leaves the elevator, Gemma bumps into him so she can pickpocket him for his adult ID card. When she makes it clear she is going to the saloon no matter what, Ty insists she needs to be smart about it. He drags her to the lost and found and they outfit her to look like a boy. Ty realizes they need to hide her breasts to avoid leers from the men inside, so he goes to find bandages.

Ty goes to Doc’s office to find bandages, despite his anxiety around medical supplies. Ty finds an article describing Dark Gifts. Doc returns to the office and does not question Ty about why he needs bandages. When Ty asks about the article, Doc says when he was assigned to Benthic Territory, he pulled up every article he could find to learn about the territory.

Before Ty leaves, Doc shows him the missing child notice out for Gemma, saying she had stolen money from the home. He will not turn her in, but he says others might. Ty hurries back to Gemma, knowing they don’t have much time. Gemma insists the money is hers, sent by her brother but confiscated by the woman who runs the home.

Ty also dons a disguise and the two enter the saloon from the elevator. Despite Ty’s rules about looking around only and not speaking to anyone, Gemma shows a man her brother’s photo and asks if he has seen him. Ty notices recognition in the man’s gaze, but he tells Gemma he does not know her brother and walks away.

A bartender sees them and demands they leave, recognizing how young they are. Gemma claims they’re looking for her brother, and both bartenders soften and look at the photo. Neither recognize her brother but offer to keep the photo and show it around to the men who come into the saloon.

Ty sees the man Gemma had approached whispering to another man. Despite the darker skin than their last encounter, Ty recognizes the second man as Shade.

Ty shields Gemma from view of the men discussing her. He tells her to find Ranger Grimes and inform him that Shade is in the saloon. After some brief resistance, she does so. Ty heads over toward the men to distract them from Gemma’s departure. They knock him down, and Shade is gone by the time he gets back up. His men speak to Ty, and Ty lies to them. He shows the picture of Gemma’s brother and claims some Topsider girl was sending the picture around online asking for help. As they become more threatening, Mel, one of the bartenders, shows up behind Ty with a weapon. She helps Ty get away from them while also getting him to leave, since she knows he is underage.

In Grimes’s office, Grimes will not believe Ty’s story. Grimes speaks condescendingly about pioneer kids, claiming they don’t get enough oxygen and that God did not make humans to live underwater.

Gemma is angry at Grimes’s treatment but also at how Ty does not fight back. Ty knows he must be smart about confrontations with people like Grimes, but Gemma wants only to fight back. She leaves in anger, heading to get her things from a locker before meeting Ty back at the submarine.

In the elevator, Ty encounters Shade. He wants to know how Ty is alive, since he had left Ty alone in the ocean without transport or weapons.

Shade interrogates Ty over what Ty said to Grimes, knowing Ty had recognized him. Ty insists Grimes didn’t believe him. Shade returns to his original question and suggests Ty has a Dark Gift. Ty tries to deny it. This changes Shade’s view. He uses the term Ty had considered an insult: Dark Life. He says Ty is Dark Life and “that’s something” (69). He frees Ty but assures Ty that if he mentions Shade again, Shade will kill him.

When Ty takes the small submarine to pick Gemma up, he sees a shadow-like figure on a level above her. When Gemma runs to the sub, it lifts its eyes to watch her, revealing red eyes.

On the ride back, Gemma asks why Ty plans to tell the settlers about Shade not having albinism, since Shade had said he would kill Ty if he did. Ty is determined not to listen to an outlaw and to make sure his home is saved so he can start his own homestead when he is old enough.

They realize that the Seablite Gang has followed them away from the Trade Station.

The Specter traps their smaller submarine in a net and begins pulling it in. Ty insists they must leave before the gang can capture them, but Gemma resists; she can’t swim, and she’s afraid of sharks. Ty admits that he has a Dark Gift that will allow him to see sharks and avoid them.

Ty admits that his Dark Gift allows him to use “biosonar” to see, even in darkness. Gemma realizes that he is the boy, Akai, from the famous studies.

Ty insists they must leave. He climbs out of the bottom hatch and holds on, grabbing Gemma when she joins him. They hide as the Specter keeps going on its path. Ty uses biosonar to start them in the direction of the Peaveys’ home.

They pass Seablite prison and decide to check it out for clues about the Seablite Gang. The prison used prisoner labor to pan for manganese nodules.

Gemma interrogates Ty as they search, and Ty shares the story of how he had been studied by doctors and child services tried to take him away from his parents. They had to go to court to get him back. Ty pretended—even with his parents—that the gift had gone away. Doctors could not prove he was lying if he did not use the gift while they studied him. Ty has been keeping it secret to protect Benthic Territory, because he suspects no one else would settle and existing pioneers would leave for fear that the same would happen to their children.

As Ty says they should leave, Gemma finds a picture of herself, one her brother had kept, taped to the wall. It occurs to them that Seablite was a juvenile reformatory where they used boys as forced labor. Ty realizes Doc must have known this and misrepresented the place to them. Both teens also realize this might mean that Gemma’s brother is part of the Seablite Gang. Gemma is overwhelmed by this information, and she asks Ty to leave her alone.