Legend egt-2

by David L. Golemon

  PART FIVE

  THE LOST WORLD

  Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before…

  — EDGAR ALLAN POE

  17

  When Teacher slowly rounded a large bend, the calm waters suddenly angered and turned white with foam rapids. Jenks cursed and threw the two diesels into reverse. The crew, half on duty, half off and asleep in their bunks, were tossed forward. The ones on watch mostly lost their footing and fell to the deck, while the others cursed as they had heads slammed into overheads. A few even fell out of their tight bunks.

  Jenks found he was fighting a losing battle as the river took hold of Teacher and thrust her forward as if she were on a wave. Whitewater was thrown over her bow glass as if she was submerging beneath the river. He cursed again when he felt a sudden blow underneath the hull and the boat rose two feet into the darkened space under the impenetrable canopy of trees. He found the emergency switches that controlled the underwater shields for the view ports and hit all as fast as he could. He couldn't hear the hydraulic whine that told him the steel shields were sliding into place.

  Jack pulled himself along the sections until he reached the cockpit, and threw himself into the copilot's seat.

  "What've we got here, Chief?" he asked as he placed his chair harness over his shoulders and tightened it down.

  "Rapids out of nowhere, no warning at all; there wasn't a change in current indicating we had rough water ahead."

  As they watched, Teacher slammed herself into a large rock outcropping and bounced back into the center of the now crazy tributary. She rocked twenty degrees to starboard and he could hear curses from the back as more people were slammed to the deck. Jack reached out, keyed the 1MC mic, and addressed those in the back.

  "Everyone strap in," he shouted over the noise of the rapids.

  Jenks pulled the joystick all the way to the right, trying to right Teacher as she again slammed into the far left bank. He could hear the twin jets at the stern as they caught mud and sand on the bank and shot it high into the air. Alarms started sounding on the console. There was a fire warning in the engineering section, and several hatch openings were reported. A damage alarm rang from section five, indicating she was taking on water.

  "Son of a bitch! I hope those boys are standing by on that fire alarm," Jenks said as he throttled the engines into full reverse.

  Teacher didn't respond as she ran for the center of the tributary.

  "We're on a steep incline," Jack called out after looking at the level gauge.

  "Impossible. There wasn't any current to speak of, unless we're falling into some sort of a damned hole," Jenks called back.

  Other alarms sounded as Teacher was gouged somewhere in section eight.

  "Chief, we have a major hole to the aft of section seven, between it and section eight," Carl called over the intercom.

  "Handle it, Toad, we're a tad busy up here," Jenks said as the huge boat slammed into a rock in the center of the tributary and careened up into the air again before slamming back down into the white water with a giant splash, sending the cockpit ten feet beneath the swirling water. Again Teacher struck the right bank, this time encountering mostly rock. They all heard the sickening crunch of buckling composite material as she righted herself and rolled hard to port.

  As suddenly as the white water had appeared it vanished, and Teacher was left spinning in a slow circle in the center of a much broader tributary. The floodlights picked out the twin banks as they spun toward the shoreline and then as they faced the river. Jenks hit the starboard jets and Teacher slowed her spin, but one of the jets must have sustained damage because she didn't slow fast enough. Finally the huge boat hit the sandy bank and that stopped her from spinning. He did the same on the aft-section jets and she stopped her spin off the rebound of the bank that would have sent her in the opposite direction. Jenks flipped the switch for automatic station keeping and hoped the system still functioned after the roller-coaster ride she had taken. Teacher was never designed for whitewater rafting. All was calm as he heard the jets engage in alternating blasts of water. Finally Teacher was at a complete standstill. The lights in all the aft sections had gone out and the crew was navigating by dull battery-driven emergency lighting only.

  "Major, just aft of this section you'll find her lighting and instrumentation fuse box. Get that breaker back in so we can see how badly she's hurt, will ya?"

  Jack unstrapped his safety harness and made his way aft. He quickly found the glass-covered panel and opened it. Three large breakers had popped. He pushed the first one and then the other two. The overheads came back on, and he could sense all hands breathed a sigh of relief. He heard Jenks on the intercom.

  "Engineering, what's your status?" he asked.

  "Give us a minute, Chief, we're still putting back some of the pieces here," Mendenhall called to him.

  Jack went to check on the others. He encountered Sarah and Danielle, who were assisting the cook with a small fire that had broken out on the stove. The overhead fans were clearing out the smoke and he figured they had it under control, so he moved on. At section eight he saw that Carl, Sanchez, and Professors Ellenshaw and Keating were tightening the frame around one of the underwater viewing windows that sat below the waterline. There was about two feet of water around their ankles as they worked.

  "Got it?" Jack asked.

  Carl looked up and nodded. He had received quite a gash on his forehead.

  "See to that, Carl," Jack said, pointing at his own forehead, and moved off again.

  The rest of the science department was all right with only a few light injuries and equipment damage. It was in the engineering section that Jack became worried. Four feet of water was lapping at the two engine platforms. Mendenhall was kneeling in it, reaching around the number two engine.

  "What've you got, Will?" Jack asked.

  Mendenhall sat back in the water and looked up. "Engine two has broken clear off her motor mounts, Major. She won't be working for a while. Her shaft to the main jet is bent like a pretzel, and we're looking at atleast five days of repair time."

  Jack walked over to the intercom and called Jenks.

  "Chief, we've lost number two for extensive repairs. Number one looks all right, but we'll have to take it slow."

  "We don't need her right at the moment," Jenks replied.

  "Why? We can keep her at a few knots," Jack countered.

  "We don't need her for a while. Tell the boys we'll work on number two in the next few days while you people find what you came to find."

  "What are you talking about, Chief?"

  "Major, we have found your goddamned lagoon," Jenks said calmly over the intercom.

  * * *

  There were fifteen souls on the upper deck looking out on what could only be described as a lost world. The massive waterfall was just as the legend described. The water fell from a source several hundred feet in the air. The center of the large lagoon was dappled in the brightest sunlight any of them could remember ever seeing, while the fringes of the water remained in almost near darkness. The havoc created by the giant falls produced its own system of winds and drafts that cooled those on deck from the relentless heat and humidity. The shoreline around the lagoon had wide beaches that stretched away from the water like the sands one would find at only the most luxurious hotels on Waikiki. But, by far, the outstanding feature of the entire scene was the giant stone arch that ran up the sides of the waterfall as it disappeared under the falls. Two stone deities stood guard on either side, flanking the falls. These were similar to the strange statues they had seen before, but more ornate in their carving. Massive one-hundred-foot-long spears were clutched in the outsize hands of these deities.

  "I have never in my life beheld anything as beautiful as this," Danielle said as she edged nearer to Carl.

  "It is something."

  "All right, I need security with me. Let's
start getting our act together," Jack said. "In all of this natural beauty, I have failed to notice one thing. The Zachary boat isn't anywhere to be found."

  The admiration for the lagoon and forested valley stopped as soon as Jack mentioned the missing craft. What had been a stunning view instantly became foreboding to everyone's eyes. Somewhere off in the jungle a cockatoo cried, and Teacher listed to starboard as she limped toward the open sunlight at the center of the lagoon.

  * * *

  Most of the science teams broke into repair groups. The security team made ready a rubber Zodiac to scout out the shoreline, to search for anything that would possibly help them in locating Professor Zachary and her team. Jack had tried to get a satellite transmission out to Boris and Natasha but the transmitter dish had been knocked free of its mounting atop the main mast. Tommy Stiles had been tabbed to repair it.

  Jack, Mendenhall, Carl, Sanchez, Jackson, and Shaw cast off the inflatable Zodiac. Carl was at the wheel and steered the boat into the darkness of the lagoon, heading toward the widest beach on the eastern side of the lagoon. The seventy-five horsepower Evinrude motor shattered the silence of the lagoon and the mountainous walls around it. He gunned the engine the last ten yards and ran the boat as far onto the sandy beach, raising the engine free of the water as the Zodiac hissed onto the sandy shoreline.

  Jack was the first out, with his M-16 pointed toward the pitch blackness of the tree line. He was joined by the others, who followed suit. The extreme quiet was matched by their own silence as they scanned the area immediately around them. Jack looked back at the silhouette and interior lighting of Teacher as she remained in the center of the sunlit lagoon. He checked his watch; they had about an hour of daylight left. If you could call this daylight, he thought.

  "Straight-line formation, gentlemen. Carl, you take up station at the rear."

  Jack started forward along the shore and followed the waterline to the south. Every ten feet as they inspected the lagoon, Mendenhall reached into his pack and pulled out a small rod with what looked like a lightbulb on the end, and stuck it into the sand, sighting each one with its mate before and after, aligning the laser early-warning fence so they would have some security from something entering the water from the dry land side. As they went they heard the sounds of the forest as it came back to life. The screeching of birds and the chattering of monkeys allowed them to relax, as at least these were sounds they could identify.

  They laid down their perimeter alarms for the next forty minutes. Although they had covered only half the perimeter of this eastern side of the lagoon, it would be a half they could basically ignore for the coming night, as nothing over a foot tall could breach the laser sighting that linked each pole with the one before and after it in the chain.

  "Okay, let's head back for now," Jack said as the disappointment set in at not having seen anything, not one piece of evidence that anyone had ever been here.

  Sanchez was looking about in the semidarkness when his foot hit something buried in the sand. He reached down and saw a rusted piece of metal jutting from the golden beach. He pulled on it but it wouldn't budge. Then he scraped out the sand along the sides of the rusted protrusion. Mendenhall joined him as the others stopped. The two men pulled and tugged. Finally the metal gave way and they both fell onto the sand as Sanchez held out a curved shape.

  "Look at that," he said in astonishment.

  The hilt was gone and they could see the remnants of braided fabric that had once covered the handle. The sword blade was mostly intact, but the once sharp edge had been totally eaten away by rust.

  "God, how old do you think it is?" Sanchez asked.

  "I would say it's about five hundred and seventy-odd years old," Jack answered. "Let's get the hell back; you can take your prize in and show the experts."

  Sanchez lightly moved the Spanish sword through the air, amazed at his find.

  As they made their way back, Jack and Carl in particular kept their eyes not only on the forest, but the lagoon, as well. But it was Mendenhall who saw it first.

  "Oh, no."

  Jack stopped and looked at the area just inside the tree line that Mendenhall was looking at. The major grimaced and made his way toward the area.

  Strewn about was what was left of the Zachary expedition. Jack counted at least fourteen bodies. He gestured for his men to spread out and start checking the grotesque scene. The people appeared to have been mauled by an animal. The remains were cast about like torn dolls among the wreckage of tents and supplies. Boys and girls. That's the way Jack was seeing it. They were just children.

  "Jesus, Major," was all Mendenhall could say.

  Sanchez stared in horror at what lay before him. They had all seen casualties before in the Gulf conflicts, but nothing could measure up to this scene. Sanchez looked at the sword he had been holding like a prize and let it slide from his fingers.

  "Before we bury them, we have to get the science people over here to look them over," said Jack. "Come on, let's move. The manifest says there are more than just these people. We may have survivors."

  As authoritative as he sounded, Jack was losing confidence in finding anyone else alive.

  * * *

  Jack had already posted the roster for the night watch teams and kept the 50 percent alert status for the duration. Upon returning from the shore and turning over the Spanish sword to the sciences, the boat had been abuzz with the knowledge that Padilla had actually been in the valley, that the legend was no longer that, but reality. Jenks had sounded the loud navigation horn three times just in case there were survivors from the Zachary expedition hidden out in the jungle. It sounded in two-minute intervals but no one came forth. Since the loud intrusion of sound, the rain forest around the lagoon had grown unnaturally silent.

  Virginia and the others had brought back the body of one of the students for a closer examination. The others had been hastily buried in the sand. Sarah had voiced the opinion that the bodies had not been disturbed by whatever animal had killed them because of the protection of the small creatures that inhabited the waters of the lagoon. The little monkeys had watched from the shadows of the trees where the men had done their grisly work of gathering up and burying the remains. Several mumbles and sighs were heard from the creatures as the bodies were covered with sand.

  The repairs to Teacher progressed well through the evening. The only item that would remain after the night would be the repair to the number two engine. Remounting it and replacing the shaft would take most of three full days, but Jenks foresaw no problems in getting it back to 100 percent. They would need that engine to traverse the rapids outside of the lagoon. It was only sheer luck they had a backup shaft in ship's stores.

  "Ready on ballast pumps," Jenks called as he flipped the switch and started filling Teacher's ballast tanks to take her low into the water so her bottom windows could have a better view of the lagoon itself.

  The crew heard the sound of the pumps as water was let into the four massive tanks lining the boat's inner hull. All hands watched the windows as the huge boat started to settle into the water. Now exactly half of her was below the surface of the strange lagoon. The fantail was only six inches above the waterline and her rear doors would remain closed for the duration of her stay here. The underwater floodlights did much to dispel the darkness around and under the boat. It also brought to life the majesty of what the lagoon held. Fish of every sort came and went through the lights, as curious of them as they were of the fish. Sarah watched over Carl's shoulder. Fish flashed in and out of her viewing range, coming right up to the large portholes, and she was amazed at their fearlessness of the strange craft in their midst.

  "When do you plan to allow us into the mine, Jack?" Virginia asked, pulling a pair of rubber gloves from her hands as she entered the lounge.

  "Not until we have Teacher back to one hundred percent in case we have to get the hell out of Dodge suddenly," he answered.

  "But Jack…"

  He looked at V
irginia and she shrugged, knowing her argument would do no good.

  "You're right; maybe tomorrow we can get some probes inside?" she asked.

  "I want to check it out as much as everyone here, Virginia, but only because we may have people holed up in there. But I won't lose anyone because we didn't take the proper precautions. The satellite dish is still down, and yes, if we have to expend every probe we have, we will look for survivors tomorrow. What did you find in your autopsy?"

  "Well," Virginia said as she sat in one of the large chairs, "the wounds are consistent with a wild animal attack. Large lacerations on the torso and head. Cause of death was massive bleeding. I'm afraid, without more equipment, we're limited to the tests we can run." She excused herself and left the table when she saw the master chief walk through the outer corridor.

  Jack watched her go and shook his head. "I hope everyone understands that we can't go charging into that cave, or mine, until we know what in the hell we're dealing with here."

  "Virginia's just anxious, as we all are, to find out about those kids. She knows you have to wait. I think it's you being hard on yourself. Waiting is the right thing," Sarah said.

  Jack looked from Sarah to Carl, and Carl knew what he was considering. Carl nodded his head and Jack spoke. "Sarah, you know that tactical nuke key that was found?"