“Agreed,” Kessler said. “But let's move in closer and get a look at the island itself first.”
“Whoah! Got a large reading from the sonar, “ Drucker said. “There's something big out there!”
“Where is it?”
“About a kilometer to starboard.”
“Let's go take a look.” He swung the stick around and pushed down, and the sub turned and descended to just below the surface. Small schools of creatures parted as the sub moved forward. The visibility was good, out to a hundred and twenty meters.
“Holy shit!” Drucker said.
A hundred meters out a huge, dark shape moved through the water. As they got closer, they saw it had four fins, two front and two rear. The creature was shaped like a torpedo, fat in the middle.
“It's sixty meters in length,” Vargas said, “and those fins are each twenty meters long. It's moving at a speed of twenty five klicks per hour.”
“I think it could probably move much faster,” Kessler said.
“Something else coming in,” Vargas said.
Kessler suddenly saw a group of slim shapes. They swam by and around the larger creature. Each had two large front fins and a tail with flukes. Their heads were broad and long, with large eyes. They swam gracefully around the larger creature and the sub. One swam close and opened its mouth, revealing large, sharp teeth. It tried to bite the front viewport, and Kessler jerked backwards.
“I'm getting us out of here.” He pulled back on the stick and turned the sub around. “Let's get to the island. Any of those things following us?”
“None,” Vargas said.
“Got some good video,” Drucker said.
Kessler surfaced and gunned the motor for several minutes, then slowed down and piloted the sub closer to island. The jellyfish were thick here, and he could barely see. Through the top part of the viewport he saw a wall of greenery. “Drucker? Can you pop the hatch and see how close we are?”
The young man stood and opened the top hatch, then climbed and stood on the ladder. “God, the island looks huge.”
“How far away are we?”
“About fifty meters. Keep moving forward.”
Kessler was getting nervous. He didn't want to end up crashing against the island. “How the surf?”
“The water is calm,” Drucker replied. “Slowly. Slowly. There. Make a ninety degree turn and cut the power.”
Kessler maneuvered the craft as instructed and then cut the motor. He stood and tugged on Drucker's pant leg. “Get up on top. I want to take a look.” Kessler climbed out of the hatch and stood on the top deck of the sub. Dr. Vargas followed.
The sub bobbed in the water. Kessler looked up at the island. It was a wall of greenery extending into the sky, the upper reaches shrouded in mist. Shrubs and vines formed a shroud hiding the surface. The island plunged directly into the water; there was no shoreline or beach. In the distance, Kessler saw other islands in the chain, all the same shape but considerably smaller. He looked down and saw masses of jellyfish clumped around the sub; the creatures filled the water as far as he could see. “I'm not going for a swim here,” Kessler said.
“Look at that,” Vargas said, pointing to the sky away from the island.
A group of flying creatures, red in color with long wings, flew in circles in the sky. As the three men watched even more appeared. There must have been hundreds of them. Their screeching cries filled the air. Over the next few moments the creatures formed complex patters in the sky: circles, v-shapes, even squares.
“Weird,” Kessler said.
“They're all a meter in length or shorter, except for the tails.” Vargas said. He raised a pair of electronic binoculars to his eyes. “They are shaped like terrestrial sea gulls, but with black eyes and beaks, and long tails with stingers.” As they watched, several of the creatures left the flock and dove into the water. They emerged moments later, rose on their flapping wings, re-joined the flock, and continued forming the complex patterns in the sky.
“Are they feeding?” Drucker asked.
“Possibly, but I don't see anything in their mouths.”
The sub bobbed closer to the island. Kessler could almost reach out and touch it.
“I want to get a sample,” Vargas said. “Can you reach a vine and pull us in closer?”
“Not without gloves, thanks.”
Drucker disappeared down the sub's hatch and moments later reappeared with two pairs of thick brown gloves. He climbed up, handed a pair of gloves to Kessler, donned his own, and then reached out and grasped a thick vine.
“For God's sake, don't fall in!” Kessler said
Slowly, Drucker and Kessler pulled the sub closer and the craft bumped up against the thick foliage.
Kessler turned to see Vargas emerge from the hatch wearing gloves and holding a hammer and chisel. “Keep pulling on that vine,” Vargas said. He extended a leg and placed his left foot on the island while keeping his right on the top deck of the sub. He leaned over, pulled away some brush, and then hammered the chisel into the rocky surface.
Chink! Chink!
Vargas pulled off a few chunks of rock and put them in a leg pouch. “That'll do.”
Suddenly a great cry rose from the red gulls. A majority of the flock dove into the water, then emerged moments later, wings flapping. They flew up several meters, and then descended toward the surface again, but this time they skimmed across the water and headed straight for the sub, screeching wildly.
“Shit!” Kessler cried. The three men scrambled into the sub and Drucker pulled the hatch closed. A multitude of thumps sounded on the hull.
“What are they doing?” Drucker gasped. “Attacking us?”
Kessler saw three of the creatures thump their wings and peck at the forward viewport. “What did you do, Vargas?” He pressed the button to start up the motor.
“Nothing! I swear!”
“Well, they're pissed off!” Kessler gunned the motor and backed away from the island. “We're outta here, boys!”
Just as quickly as the attack started, it stopped. The three men breathed heavily for a few moments and then calmed down. “Let's continue to the other side of the island,” Vargas said. “I'll send you the coordinates where Dr. Kanas and his student descended.”
Kessler maneuvered the sub around the island, keeping their speed below thirty klicks per hour. Through the forward viewport, Kessler saw the island looming to the right. He turned and looked at Vargas. “What do the samples look like?”
Vargas used a small hand lens to look at one of the samples. “Definitely volcanic. Rapidly cooled in the air after extrusion ... lots of plagioclase and pyroxene. Significant amounts of iron-oxide, and probably iron-titanium oxide. This rock was definitely not extruded into water. The iron oxide makes this rock magnetic.”
They continued their way around the island. “We're at the same spot Kanas left the sub,” Vargas said.
“Lets dive and take a look.” Kessler punched a button and the ballast tanks on the side of the sub filled with water. Through the front viewport he saw the surface disappear, but the view was almost totally obscured by the jellyfish. He flipped the switch for the active sonar; hopefully they wouldn't slam into anything.
“Twenty meters,” Vargas said. “Forty meters. Sixty. Eighty.” As the sub descended, Kessler heard the hull of the craft creak and groan. “Soundings from the sonar says the bottom is at a hundred and eight meters.”
“Levelling off,” Kessler said. He piloted the sub while watching the sonar display, keeping an eye on the wall of the island. Gloom filled the depths; he flipped a switch to turn on the sub's lights.
A profusion of branching structures, of different textures, sizes and colors, covered the wall, and huge fans, some three or four meters in diameter, waved in the slight current. The jellyfish were not quite as numerous as at the surface, but scores still hung suspended in the water.
“Hello!” Drucker said, tapping on his keyboard.
“Whatchy
a got?” Kessler asked.
“Sonar soundings have revealed a fissure leading into the island.”
Kessler saw it immediately. “Cool. Shall we take a look? Let's send in the drone.” Kessler pulled back on the stick and stopped the sub.
Vargas punched a button on his console, and with a bump and a click small circular craft appeared in the forward viewport. The video feed from the drone appeared on the computer's screen. Tapping on the keyboard, Vargas steered the drone into the fissure. Like the island wall, the passage was covered with branching structures and fans, as well as kelp-like life growing from the bottom. Scores of the jellyfish hung suspended in the water. The drone pushed itself through the leafy kelp and the jellies; after about thirty meters, the passage opened up into a chamber.
“This is a long passage, over a hundred meters long and thirty meters in diameter,” Vargas said.
“What the hell is that?” Kessler said. He saw a white object tangled in the kelp and coral near the left side of the chamber, and Vargas maneuvered the drone in close. A few meters beyond he saw another, similar object, but this one was more obscured by the kelp. He suddenly realized what they were. “Pressure suits!”
“Are you serious?” Drucker asked.
The three men crowded around the computer console. “Must be those used by Dr. Kanas and his student,” Vargas said.
Kessler's heart almost stopped. Are they still in them?
Vargas sighed, and Drucker gulped; Kessler realized his companions had the same thought.
“Shine the directional light into the helmet,” Kessler said quietly.
Vargas tapped a few keys and a beam shone into the faceplate of the nearest pressure suit. The helmet looked empty. He maneuvered the drone so it was between the pressure suits, facing them, and shone the beam into the faceplate of the second suit.
Nothing.
“Either they're missing their heads, or they aren't in those suits,” Kessler said. “Are they still alive?”
“I doubt it,” Vargas replied. “There's no way they could survive outside of the suits. The pressure down here is far too great.”
“Then where the hell did they go?” Drucker asked.
“I think the bigger question is, what, or who, got them out of those suits?” Kessler said.
“We need to get those suits back to the Solstice for an investigation,” Vargas said. “The fissure is just wide enough; we can use the robot arms.”
“Sure thing,” Kessler said. He grasped the stick and moved the sub slowly into the fissure. The sub pushed its way through the kelp and approached the pressure suits in the large chamber. “Pull the drone back in.” He pulled out the robot arm controls from the console. The arms appeared in the front viewport as they unfolded from a compartment in the bottom of the sub. He moved the sub closer to one of the pressure suits, and then grasped the robot arm controls. Pushing and twisting the controls, he extended the robot arms toward the suit. Using the finger controls, he grasped the suit under the arms and pulled it toward the sub. He lifted the controls upward and the pressure suit disappeared under the front the of sub.
“We can surface, pull the suit into the sub, and then come back for the other,” Kessler said as he stored the controls in the front console. “Unfortunately, the sub is too small to have its own airlock.” He grasped the stick and moved the sub backwards.
Suddenly, dark streams of smoke or dust filled the water and obscured vision out of the front viewport. “Now what the hell is going on?” Kessler said.
Something slapped against the front viewport. It looked like a hand, with six long fingers and a thumb, but thick webbing spanned the digits. “Holy shit!” Thumps and slaps sounded through the sub.
“What the hell?” Drucker said.
A face appeared in the front viewport. It had large eyes, a crest of fins on the top of the head, and other fins extending from the cheeks. A large mouth opened revealing scores of tiny sharp teeth.
“Get out of here!” Vargas cried. “Now!”
Kessler swung the sub around and gunned the motor. The slapping and thumping on the hull increased, but the face disappeared. “C'mon baby!” Kessler cried. “Don't let me down.”
The sub sped up for the first twenty meters, but then Kessler noted a drag on the craft's speed.
“What's happening?” Drucker cried.
“Damn strong current,” Kessler said through gritted teeth, “drawing us back into the chamber.” He gunned the motor to max speed and the sub speed up again for a few moments, but then started to slow again. The slapping and thumping on the hull increased.
“This is a strong current!” He dialed up the power from the battery to the motor. The sub's lights, inside and out, flickered and dimmed, but the sub sped up again. Kessler smelled an acrid odor, and smoke filled the cabin. “Hold on, baby! Don't burn out!”
The sub shot from the passage and plowed through a thick cloud of jellyfish. Long plumes of smoke or dust streamed from the island wall. Kessler pulled up on the stick and the sub ascended at an angle of five degrees. As the sub ascended, Kessler heard the pumps cycling the water out of the ballast tanks on each side of the craft. The motor suddenly screamed and seized, and the sub quickly ascended to the surface uncontrolled. Acrid smoke filled the cabin, and the three men coughed and hacked. Kessler covered his eyes and tried to hold his breath, but the snot and phlegm dripped from his nose and mouth.
He felt a moment of vertigo, and then was slammed into his seat. He opened his eyes to see light streaming into the front viewport. He stood, opened the top hatch and quickly climbed out of the sub. He fell to his knees and coughed. He looked up and saw Vargas and Drucker emerge from the hatch and throw themselves onto the top deck. Smoke bellowed from the hatch and rose into the sky.
Kessler groaned. “That was fun!”
The three men sat up and looked at each other, and then started to laugh. In the sky the red gulls circled around, forming complex patterns.
“What was that thing?” Drucker spat.
“Some sort of fish man,” Vargas replied, coughing. “Maybe intelligent. If so, this is quite a find.”
“I think there was more than one,” Kessler said. “I hope they don't come after us; we're dead in the water. I burned out the electric motor.”
“We've still got power for communications,” Vargas said.
“I hope so.”
“I think we may have found out what happened to Dr. Kanas and his student.”
“Certainly looks pretty cut and dried. The Solstice needs to know what happened here.”
While they waited for the smoke to clear from the sub, they kept a keen eye on their surroundings. The water was calm, with only a few ripples. They could see hundreds of jellyfish in the water surrounding the sub. The stellar primary had begun to descend to the horizon. The islands loomed in the distance.
Kessler climbed back into the sub. The smoke had dissipated, but the acrid smell remained. He tapped a button on the radio, put on a headset, and patched into the satellite network.
“Solstice this is Survey 1.”
“Solstice here, Survey 1,” Lieutenant Kuusik replied.
“Can you patch me through to the Captain?”
“Aye.” Kessler waited for a few moments.
“Solstice here, Survey 1,” Talbot said.
“We may have found out what happened to Dr. Kanas, Solstice.” Kessler described the events of the last hour.
“So we don't know for certain they're dead,” Talbot said.
“I suppose so, but I wouldn't bet on them being alive.”
“The Solstice can't come and pick you up right now, Survey 1, but I'll send the fast boat to retrieve you. It should be there in an hour or so. I expect a full report when you return. Solstice out.”
Fuck, she's cold. Though Talbot did ask whether anyone was injured, she seemed rather businesslike. Kessler removed the headset, picked up his duffle bag, and climbed out of the sub.
“The fast boat is
coming to pick us up. Give it a couple of hours.”
“It'll be dark soon,” Drucker said. “I'm getting hungry.”
Kessler sat and pulled a few ration bars from his duffle and tossed them to his companions. “We've got to make the best of it. The smoke is gone, but it still stinks down there. I suggest we sit up here until dark.” He pulled the general sensor unit from the duffle, set it on the deck, and tapped a few buttons. The device immediately began to tick. “This'll tell us if we get any visitors.”
“And if those things come to get us?” Vargas asked, chewing on a ration bar.
He pulled the blaster pistol from his duffle. “I like to keep this around for surprises.”
Chapter 6: Uncomfortable Memories
Talbot clipped her pockcomp on her belt and stood in the curved outer corridor of the Crew and Lab Section. He's safe. She knew she was curt with Commander Kessler, but she couldn't treat some members of the crew better than the others, regardless of her feelings. He's a distraction. She sighed, scanned the personnel list on her pockcomp, and pressed a button. “Ensign Simon?”
“Yes, Captain,” the young man replied.
“Survey 1 has had some difficulties. I need you and a mission specialist to pick them up in the fast boat. They're only an hour away. Get the coordinates from Lieutenant Kuusik.”
“Aye, Captain.”
She continued down the corridor and entered the medical lab.
One of the smallest compartments on the Solstice, the medical lab contained an operating table, two beds, diagnostic and surgical equipment, and a desk. In case of a larger incident with more sick or wounded, like the troubled survey on the planet Hope during the Solstice’s first mission, the crew could set up portable structures and equipment in the cargo bay so medical personnel could treat the sick and wounded in isolation.
When the door slid open and Talbot looked in, she saw Dr. Webb, clad in protective blue coveralls, leaning over a body lying on the operating table on the far side of the compartment. In one of the beds to the right of the door lay another body, the head bandaged. Talbot couldn’t recognize either of the wounded, but she knew them to be Political Officer Emerans Van Zant and Tech Specialist Dag Wuland.
The Dreaming Oceans of San Miguel Page 4
