“Not too much yet. Some details on her escape out of China, experiencing some neurological problems. And all going back to that secret excavation in South America, as I understand it. Admiral Langford left it there and said I should prepare myself for a surprising story when I got here.”
Neely shrugged humorously. “That’s an understatement. How familiar are you with medical genetics?”
“Not much. Probably enough to dislike some pharmaceutical companies.” Tricia grinned. “Of course, they’re not all bad.”
“Agreed.” Neely nodded then took a deep breath. “Let’s just say that what the Chinese discovered in South America has been nothing short of…extraordinary. In fact–”
Tricia abruptly held up a hand. “One sec,” she said, motioning to Li Na. “Does she speak English?”
“Yes.”
“Then we should continue this outside. She may already be able to hear us.”
“Right.” Neely glanced affectionately at Li Na before turning and leading the way out. As she stepped into the hall and turned to watch Tricia ease the door shut behind her, it struck Neely that Admiral Langford was right.
Trying to explain this story was no small feat. She thought for a moment and decided, for brevity’s sake, to skip the part about the alien ship, submerged underwater barely a hundred miles away. That was where the story really got crazy.
23
For Elgin Tay, the situation was not just crazy, it had become a fight for survival.
Trying to both fight through the pain and conserve precious energy, he swam gently forward in complete darkness, now far enough away from the wall that the echoes had disappeared. Their absence replaced by the sound of a soft rippling turbulence around his arms and shoulders, accompanied by a heightened fear of running face first into something at any moment. A something he wouldn’t be able to see until it was too late.
The one comfort he still had was the glowing object in front of him, drawing nearer ever so slowly. It was still too hazy to identify, but he could see now that the glow seemed to be pulsing. Not much, just a soft increase in brightness before fading again, only to brighten once more a few moments later.
He stopped and managed to tread water for a minute, trying to do some quick math in his head. Judging from the measuring he’d done against the wall, he now estimated the center to be just over a tenth of a mile. That meant he had to be getting closer, even if slowly.
Tay stared intently through the blackness. Fighting to keep himself still, he was sure whatever it was did look closer, and larger. He was much closer. Closer than he thought.
And then he saw it. He hadn’t noticed it before, but a faint line stood out from beneath the flickering glow. Indicating that whatever he was looking at…appeared to be bobbing in the water.
Tay tried to keep his eyes fixed with every stroke, spitting air and water back out in front of him.
Yes. There was something floating there. And it was close. The reflective glow around it looked soft, but the edge of the object itself had a sharper outline.
He swam faster. In less than a minute, he closed the distance and found himself almost right on top of the object.
It was big, and when Tay realized what it was, he was elated. Wood. A large piece, not much longer than his own body length, and probably ten to twelve inches in diameter. Not quite large enough to float on, but it was real, and he could touch it.
Now he could see where the light was coming from. The water was gently pushing the wood against another surface in the darkness, bumping it with enough pressure that the wood created a soft glow down its entire length each time it made contact. Providing a gentle push, the ripples softened momentarily––allowing the narrow log to drift away before rhythmically being pushed again into the hull.
Tay wasted no time pulling the log out of the way and touching the black surface behind it. A larger glow appeared, this time from his own hand. Just like with the outer wall, but this surface felt different. He could still feel the subtle impressions of the hexagons, but this surface felt cooler. And not as smooth. Even irregular.
At the same moment he had his thought, Tay jumped as his hand ran across something else in the metal. One that felt like a seam.
***
He searched desperately along the wall, quickly finding a second seam. Both had sharp and pronounced edges, rising one to two inches from the rest of the surface, or so it seemed. It was very different compared to anything else he had felt in the ship. And both sides felt exactly the same.
He estimated the distance between each line to be roughly five feet. Maybe six. And while he wanted to search more, he found himself more excited about the piece of driftwood. How it had gotten in there, he had no idea. Perhaps it had been trapped underwater, against the coral, and had been freed during the explosion that sucked him into the ship. He had no idea.
Frankly, he didn’t care. What was important was that he had the log now…and he knew exactly what to do with it.
24
Hello Alison.
“Hello, Sally. How are you?”
Me happy. How you?
Alison smiled inside her mask. “Better.” The symptoms from her decompression sickness were fading, which was a relief. She stared at Sally without saying anything, trying to sense whether there was anything else there. There wasn’t. Whatever the strange sensation was that she’d felt the last time was gone. She decided it must have been her. Most likely side effects from her sickness.
Alison. You happy?
“Yes,” she responded, more relaxed this time. “I’m fine. I was just checking something.”
A sharp tone sounded in her ear. IMIS did not understand the word checking. She ignored it. “How are you feeling, Sally?”
Me many happy. Sally pumped her tail. Me mother.
“That’s wonderful, Sally.”
Another error.
“That is very good,” she rephrased. “I am very happy for you. We are all very happy.”
Dirk happy.
Alison grinned. I bet he is, she thought. The proud father. “How long, Sally?”
Alison waited for the response, testing to see if Sally would understand her question.
No long Alison.
Alison almost chuckled. She clearly understood the context. After all, dolphin pregnancies were only slightly longer than that of humans, which was something else that seemed uncannily similar between both species. In fact, there were more similarities than most people knew, beginning with their advanced abilities in social networking. One very strange fact even suggested a much more controversial hypothesis called the re-entrant theory. Due to the numerous remnant hand and leg bones in a dolphin’s fins, some researchers suggested that ancestors of the cetacean species may at one time have been able to move over land.
“Well, I’m glad you’re feeling well,” she replied.
This time Sally did not answer. Alison let it go and looked on through the darkness at the dozens of other dolphins swimming past––no doubt listening to her and Sally with curiosity.
“Where’s Dirk?”
He gone. Come back.
“I see. What about your elders? Where are they?”
They talk.
Alison nodded to herself. Of course they were.
After a pause, Sally spoke again. You help us, Alison. Yes?
“I will help if I can.”
At that, Sally pushed playfully past her. You friend, Alison. She came around the other side and gently bumped Alison’s hand. We play.
“Sure. Let’s play.” Alison kicked forward and grabbed the top of Sally’s dorsal fin as the dolphin pumped her tail hard, pulling Alison along with her.
She loved swimming with Dirk, but there was something special for Alison when she was with Sally. It was a connection that she just couldn’t describe. And it was clearly mutual. Somehow, even with only a limited vocabulary, the two seemed to understand each other. If not simply by the words alone, then it was by something much
less tangible––like an innate feeling or an improvement in their ability to read each other’s subtle expressions. After all, the longer someone spent with another person, or even another animal for that matter, the better they became at reading them.
Of course, reading dolphins was particularly difficult given their limited facial expressions. DeeAnn had a much easier job learning to read Dulce than Alison had reading Dirk and Sally. But eventually, even she could detect subtle differences, which actually made the birth of the IMIS system possible. After all, if people could learn to read animals instinctively, it shouldn’t be that much of a stretch to eventually figure out their words.
She thought of Frank Dubois—her boss and mentor and the one who had originally come up with the idea. It was one of the phrases she remembered him using when talking about his grand vision. If we can read animals, why can’t we teach a computer to do it?
Alison kicked her fins, working to keep up with Sally, who swam almost effortlessly through the dark water. The pair gradually descended until she could see the green glow of the plants beneath them. They were not only stunning but endless, spreading in all directions.
It was here that an almost accidental discovery…had put two entirely different worlds on one deeply interconnected path.
And the view was just as incredible as the first time Alison had seen it.
This time, transient clouds overhead allowed the sunlight to beam down over the surface––creating curtains of light that shimmered and wove through the rich blue water.
Walls of dolphins and fish were literally everywhere, darting in and out of the brilliant coral. They swam through hundreds of orange fire coral rising in the distance, closer to the surface and shaped like giant flat flowers. There, just above, dozens of silhouetted sea turtles passed overhead before Alison glanced forward again, securing her grip on Sally’s fin.
Sally made a sound that Alison’s vest could not capture moments before she rotated into a barrel roll, causing Alison to slip off. When Sally circled back around, she laughed.
Alison. You no strong.
“Very funny.” Alison grinned. You’re beginning to sound like Dirk. In truth, Dirk was much stronger and faster, even more than Sally. So much so, that holding onto him was almost impossible once he really got going. The only person she’d seen successfully hold onto Dirk the whole time was John.
Alison grabbed hold again, and Sally accelerated. She veered sharply when a large pod of dolphins passed by, joining in behind. Alison looked incredulously back and forth at the others, all swimming together tightly in formation. They were amazing in both grace and strength.
“Wooow,” Alison whispered.
Alison. You happy?
She smiled. It was Sally’s way of making sure she was okay.
“I’m fine, Sally. Really, really fine.”
***
Alison did not immediately notice when Sally began to slow, primarily because the entire group did so in unison. But once she felt the surge in water pressure from behind, Alison quickly looked up. Many of the dolphins, both in and out of the group, were turning in the same direction.
“What it is, Sally?”
Sally continued to reduce her speed, eventually turning out of the pack and into the open. Now all of the dolphins were turning.
Talk Alison.
Alison could not hear any of it. “What kind of talk?”
Sally didn’t reply. Instead, she remained still, listening.
Lee had long since adjusted the code for multiple conversations, but fragmented messages were still a problem for IMIS, leaving Alison unable to hear most of what was happening. All she could make out were very brief snippets of largely unintelligible noise.
But it made her think of something else. Something she considered fascinating. Noise traveled faster underwater, she knew that. It was denser and therefore more conducive. It also traveled much farther. And it made her wonder what that meant for their communication abilities—not just between each other but within a very large group.
Of course, dolphins could talk to each other. They already knew that. But given the medium of water for communication, as opposed to air for humans, Alison wondered just how far that communication could go. How far could some of their messages travel, especially if relayed from dolphin to dolphin? And if they could relay messages long distances with the help provided by water, could a message be passed globally?!
It was a stunning concept, one with profound implications. And one that was promptly interrupted when Sally finally responded.
Sounds, Alison.
“Yes, I know.”
No, Alison. No talk. Sounds.
Alison furrowed her eyebrows. “Sounds? What do you mean?”
Sounds below. Talks say sounds below.
She was still confused. “I don’t understand.”
Like before. More many.
Alison paused, thinking. “Chris, can you still hear me?”
“Loud and clear.”
“Are you hearing this?”
“I am.”
“Any ideas?”
Back on the ship, Chris shook his head. “Not really. What does she mean by like before?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can she describe them?”
“Sally, can you describe the sounds?”
Sally remained quiet, continuing to listen. Long quiet short, the dolphin replied. Long quiet long short long long.
Alison blinked inside her mask, thinking and repeating the words to herself. Long quiet short, she thought. That didn’t make any– “Wait!” Alison suddenly remembered that pattern. And nearly screamed into her microphone. “Chris! Get a pencil!”
***
The door to the small communications room burst open and slammed against the bulkhead wall with a thunderous bang. Chris barely noticed as he leaped through the narrow doorway and raced down the short hallway to the outside hatch. When he reached it, he threw open the second door with just as much urgency and darted out onto the metal grating outside. He gripped the rail with his good hand and searched up and down the walkway with a look of panic.
When he spotted what he was looking for, Chris took off running again toward the first aft ladder, where he descended as quickly as he could. He rushed further back along the main deck until he reached the second ladder and went down again. Finally, he made it onto the ship’s stern where the engineers were still working on the drill.
Captain Emerson was standing nearby, observing the progress and speaking with another officer.
“Captain!” Chris screamed breathlessly. “CAPTAIN!”
Emerson turned at the commotion, wearing a frown of consternation. He watched Chris quickly cover the distance before shoving something into his hands.
“Ramirez. What in God’s name–”
“Read this!” Chris yelled with excitement, pointing down at the paper. “The dolphins are hearing something down there. Read it!”
Emerson stared at Chris before lowering his head and reading. “This is Morse Code.”
“Yes, it is!”
It took Emerson only a moment to convert the eight characters in his head. When he did, he looked back at Chris with wide eyes. “Is this right?!”
“Yes,” Chris exclaimed, “we verified it!”
Emerson immediately turned and barked at the group of men behind him. “Corbin! Beene!”
Two of the men raised their heads and looked at the captain.
“Get your gear on! Now!” He pointed to the rest of the men. “Everyone, stop what you’re doing! Get these men into the water…RIGHT THIS MINUTE!”
The men immediately began to scramble, while Emerson looked at Chris then back down at the piece of paper. His Morse Code may have been rusty, but the letters on the paper could not have been clearer.
T-A-Y A-L-I-V-E
25
Inside the ship, Tay dropped the log and wiped a veil of sweat from his forehead with his arm. He was going to have to do this in
shifts. Banging hard and methodically against the wall for the last half hour had been exhausting. His arms and back ached, partially from repeatedly swinging the log and the rest from being without food for two days. He could feel the gradual depletion of his energy reserves.
There was no doubt he’d used up all of his glycogen stores and was now burning every last bit of fat his body could find before it was forced to begin burning muscle. With some effort, he lowered the log and dropped it onto the shelf beneath his feet, wincing when he accidentally scraped a swath of skin off his right shin. At least that’s what the pain felt like. He prodded gently with his fingertips and could feel wetness emerging from the wound.
It didn’t feel severe, but Tay could not completely trust his brain. He could feel exhaustion setting in sooner than it had before. And more completely at this point, almost from head to toe.
Tay wasn’t sure about the thickness of the outside wall in front of him, but the acoustics of the water on the other side would give him at least a small chance of being heard.
Now he had to wait and rest before trying it again. His hunger pangs and rapidly depleting energy told Tay he had only a couple more days before he would probably no longer be able to lift the log.
Technically he could last another couple weeks without food as long as he found more water. But it didn’t mean his body would be able to do much.
He lowered himself onto the ledge and leaned back weakly, against the cool wall. Someone had to hear him. They had to. Because if they didn’t…he was going to die inside this thing.
26
Alison returned to the Pathfinder just in time to see two muscular figures jump from the ship’s stern, splashing into the water almost simultaneously.
Chris’s voice sounded through her earbuds. “Two divers are in the water, Ali!”
“I see them. Can you patch me through?”
Mosaic (Breakthrough Book 5) Page 10
