Universal Code

by William Songy

  Logan pulled off the neoprene glove and grabbed the metal. Upon contact, the metal instantly heated up and nearly burned the tips of his fingers. Reflexively, he released the metal, catching it in his right hand. The neoprene glove was imprinted upon contact. The area across the palm and fingers of the left hand where he had held it was noticeably pink.

  Phil swam over the brain coral to where Logan was and descended to his side. He saw Logan as he nearly tossed the metal away, “What happened?”

  “Somehow this metal burned me.” Out of curiosity, Logan reached down with the back of his exposed hand and cautiously touched it a second time. This time it was cool. He retrieved it, this time without the burn. Logan looked back at the glove and the imprint to confirm what had happened. “It certainly burned me a second ago, but it’s not even warm now. This is a little strange.”

  Phil swam past Logan to get on the opposite side of the location where the item was found. A thud was instantaneously followed by a profanity, which made Logan look up. Phil’s hands were on his head. He was slightly disoriented and was adjusting his mask.

  “What happened?” Logan asked Phil as he readjusted himself and cleared the saltwater out of the mask.

  “I’m not sure, I ran into something, only…there is nothing here. At least, nothing that I can see.” He put his hand in front of him only to find that something had in fact been there. “Oh my gosh. There is something invisible here and it is huge!” As he reached out with his left hand and applied pressure, it was Phil who moved backward as the invisible wall seemed to be completely stationary. “There is definitely something here. It seems to be rather solid.” He swam toward the surface while sliding his hand on the invisible wall attempting to discern its height. He was eighteen feet off the ocean floor when the object seemed to end. “It is rather large. It is rounded and smooth as if aerodynamic. There is a top and it tapers down again,” Phil noted as he swam the outer perimeter.

  Logan swam over with the metal in his hand and reached out where he assumed the wall was. He inadvertently placed the odd metal against the object. A blue-white web of electricity spread over a ten-foot area revealing a section of a metal structure. “This is…strange, to say the least.”

  A large area of sand kicked up like that of a huge fleeting stingray gliding across the seafloor. The movement of the object pushed Phil toward the surface. “It’s moving!” he said. The disturbed sand swirled in an area that may have represented the outer perimeter of the object. The sand cloud gave them an idea of the size of its base. It appeared to be sliding across the ocean floor into the direction of deeper water.

  “It’s moving out to sea. By the look of the outline in the sand, I guess it’s about twenty by thirty,” Logan noted in disbelief.

  “Yes, it’s big…whatever it is. Did you hear any kind of motor or anything? I didn’t,” Phil said as he swam alongside the disturbed area of sand.

  “No, total silence. There’s some weird stuff going on around here,” Logan said. Is this the thing that was under the water by the jetty last night? Is it associated with Mr. Aqualung that never came back to the surface for air or the beach?

  Phillip pulled a dive knife from his forearm and drove the butt of the handle into the area in front of him. There was only a dull thump, no sound of metal on metal.

  Logan looked back at the piece of silver in his hand. Prior to this incident, he had considered such an event science fiction and impossible in the real world. How did the metal generate an electric current and why did it cause a failure in the object’s mechanics that exposed the exterior shell? Was the underwater craft or whatever it was, running from the piece of silver? He pushed his fins and swam to where he presumed the object was then touched it with the metal a second time. The blue and white web of electricity briefly appeared, spread over a ten-foot area, then dissipated as he pulled the metal back. Instantly, the shifting sand appeared again as it moved a second time. Only, it didn’t stop and moved out to deeper water over the shelf.

  Phil swam back to Logan. Both were dumbfounded as the object moved out to sea. “Well, we can’t keep chasing it. I’m nearly out of air and we’re at one hundred and twenty-five feet. The logical explanation would be…what?” Phil asked.

  “Well, we're not crazy, we both saw the same thing,” Logan looked down at the camera that was strapped to his chest, “I’m not sure how much I got, but this was recording the whole time.”

  Phillip’s arms abruptly flew out from his sides and he screamed. His body bent unnaturally at the lower back near the base of his spine. He shot forward through the water with enough force to nearly take his mask off. When his forward momentum stopped, he automatically grabbed at his lower back and was incapable of a response or retaliation as the pain moved through his body.

  Logan spun around to investigate the source of the impact, expecting to see a shark. As he turned, he saw a long rod as it was quickly cutting through the water in line with his head. Instinctively, he reached up with his right hand and used the piece of silver to block the impact. Upon contact with the metal, a bolt of electricity quickly moved through the rod and exploded in the hands of its host, which was thrown backward. The metal rod splintered and the remnants fell helplessly to the seafloor.

  “What the…” was all the Logan could say as he looked at their attacker. Against his better judgment, he swam closer to get a better look and to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. The creature was recovering from the shock and explosion. It slowly turned to face Logan. Its height was about six feet, the skin color was a light blue, but had an iridescent sheen making it difficult to see against the backdrop of the vast waters. If it were not for the iridescent sheen on the skin illuminated by the limited sunlight, the beast would have been impossible to see unless it made its presence known. The eyes were larger than a human’s, but Logan couldn’t make out the color or any discernable features. It was apparent that the saltwater did not have any effect on its eyes as it didn’t need any type of mask or protection. The face didn’t reveal any points of entry for air or water outside of what he perceived to be the mouth. The humanoid creature waved webbed hands and feet back and forth to maintain its position while recouping. The oblong head was too human, but it was certainly not a man.

  The creature regained its composure and reached behind its back and pulled out a second weapon. It stared at Logan for a second and then moved toward him. Logan raised his right hand and considered dropping the metal in favor of his knife. As if sensing his need to protect himself, the metal began to morph. The piece turned into a near liquid form. From the base, a long strand coiled around his wrist like a serpent while the portion in his hand conformed to his grip. The remaining section took on the shape of a double-edged dagger.

  The approaching creature stopped and watched as the metal changed shape in Logan’s hand. Despite the foreign nature of the beast, Logan could tell that it was both amazed and horrified by what it had witnessed in the metal. It looked at Logan and then back to the newly formed dagger and back to Logan again. It seemed to calculate the risk of a second attack. It was clear that it was afraid of the metal in his hand. The beast reached back and sheathed its weapon, opened two large webbed hands and was gone in a matter of seconds.

  The beast was incredibly fast in the water and there was no way Logan was going to chase it down, especially while low on air. Logan looked to the damaged rod that was used to strike Phillip. He would have to bounce down below a hundred and twenty feet to retrieve it. But it was worth the risk. In a fluid motion, he nosed down and kicked toward the object. He would get one attempt before running out of air. Logan grabbed the damaged rod and slowly made his way to the surface allowing proper decompression time reducing the risk of nitrogen bubbles forming in his blood vessels. At eighty feet he took in his last breath of air and steadily blew tiny bubbles as he ascended.

  Once on the surface, he ripped off the mask and tossed it to Marco along with the rod. He set the piece of strange metal on the div
e platform and pulled off his fins. Phillip, for the most part, was over the lower back pain and was anxious to get out of the water. He then realized that the piece of silver had returned to its natural shape. Logan floated for a second wondering how or why the metal had changed. It defied all logic…much like the invisible underwater craft.

  Phillip stepped off the ladder and was in the boat when Logan went to retrieve the silver. There was a sudden pressure around his ankle and he was jerked down beneath the surface. Twenty or thirty feet, he wasn’t sure, but whatever it was that had him was certainly strong. Logan kicked and tried to swim to the surface but felt as if he was going deeper. Instincts kicked in and he fumbled around looking for the plastic ball at the end of the chord that would puncture the CO2 cartridge. After a second, he found it and yanked on it puncturing the CO2 releasing the gas into the buoyancy compensator. He felt his body reverse direction and head back toward the surface. Despite this, whatever had him by his left ankle was not letting go. He tried to look, but without the mask, the saltwater burned his eyes.

  When he reached the surface, he heard someone dive into the water and saw a thick stream of bubbles trailing them. There was a loud bang immediately followed by the release of pressure on his ankle. A cable had been the cause of the pain. He pulled it off and rubbed at the wound on his ankle. Marco returned to the surface; his face was expressionless. Logan quickly climbed up the ladder and turned to help Marco, who had jumped in the water with a bang-stick to help him.

  “Dang bro…I thought a shark had you…that was no shark! What was that?” Marco asked in the midst of fighting to regain his breath. “I don’t know what that was that had you, bro.”

  The two divers looked at each other, “What did you see?” Phillip asked.

  “That wasn’t a fish or a man, looked…in between. It had a rod with a cable on it. The cable was around his ankle and it was pulling him down. I hit it right in the chest. Twelve-gauge…four-shot square in the chest. It has to be dead,” Marco said in disbelief.

  Logan moved to the stern and reached over the gunnel to the dive platform. The metal was still there, but just under the surface, a pair of yellow eyes stared hauntingly back at him. Without speaking, he snapped his fingers and waved everyone over. It was the first time Maria was able to see the creature and confirm that the men hadn’t lost their minds. A webbed hand shot out of the water for the metal. As it closed in, hair-thin bolts of electricity surged off the metal and into the alien creature’s hand. Instantly, the long bony fingers of the webbed hand seemed to constrict from the shock before grabbing the piece of strange silver. The hand jerked back and shot under the surface.

  “Is that like some kind of mermaid…merman?” Maria asked wide-eyed.

  “I am not sure. But whatever you took from down there, that thing does not want anyone to have it…whatever it is,” Marco said looking around for more of the creatures.

  “Did you see how that metal shocked the thing?” Logan turned and pointed at the rod, “that is what it hit Phillip with. I blocked it with the metal and it kind of blew up. The thing recoiled in pain. Then swam away,” Logan reached over to grab it.

  “You sure you want to touch it? What if it shocks you?” Maria asked.

  “It didn’t before. It burned, but there was no shock,” he said. Logan retrieved it with no negative response. “Just to be safe, maybe no one else should touch this for now. I guess there won’t be a second dive today.”

  They all nodded in agreement. Phil picked up the rod and looked at the splintered metal on the end. He pulled a magnet out of his BC and put it up to the rod. The magnet didn’t stick to it. “It’s not made out of steel, Phillip noted. The rod was coated with strange markings that were unequivocally foreign. “So, this is what it jammed into my back. These markings, they don’t match the box that piece of silver was in…right? These look like some symbols you would find scratched on a stone somewhere in ancient Samaria.”

  Logan scanned the video from the chest camera and found the symbol. He paused it and placed it next to the rod. Different species…race?

  “I guess you have a piece of his…their property. I wonder how bad they want it back?” Marco yelled over the outboards.

  As they approached Sugar Beach, the jetty where the odd occurrence from the previous night had taken place was barely in view. Logan pointed toward it and told Phillip, Marco, and Maria about what had happened. “I am not sure if that was the source of the light, but this is the direction it was headed. Are the two related? I don’t know. But I do want to find out.”

  “A man just walks into the water and never returns?” Phillip asked with an odd expression attempting to take it all in.

  “The light darts from the end of the jetty at an incredible speed. I waited and searched for thirty minutes and never saw him again. Now, we see this invisible thing moving across the ocean floor and that creature. The guy at the bar seems more sensible by the minute,” Logan admitted giving in to the insanity of the situation.

  Logan picked up the camera and stared at the inscription that was on the box. The elongated oval was similar to that of the human eye. In the center of the oval was a V filled with what looked like dark emerald color. He shoved the camera and damaged rod into his dive bag and began to pack up the gear.

  As the dive boat approached the dock, the beach in front of the resort was in the process of being staged for a wedding. A wooden arch covered in white flowers was next to the water. Twenty-eight white padded chairs were set up in four rows of seven. He noticed Ayla in front of the arch having her photo taken by a man in a tuxedo t-shirt and bathing suit. It was to be a sunset affair, which was no less than five hours away, but Ayla’s hair seemed to be nicely done up. In the meantime, she wore a pink linen dress that went down to her knees.

  Other members of the wedding party were taking photos by the water and among the palm trees. Ayla clearly stood out among them and was attractive enough to briefly take his mind off the recent events. He considered pointing her out to Phil but didn’t want to seem rude or bring any attention to himself. Besides, he knew that if he were to talk over the outboard engines, anything he said this close to shore would be heard by everyone on the beach.

  She was holding a pair of shoes in her left hand and was walking barefoot on the beach next to the guy in the tuxedo t-shirt. She was laughing, something he did not see her do the night before and seemed to be having a good time. A tall blond walked over, threw her arm over Ayla’s shoulder then a photographer took a picture of them.

  Behind them, in the tree line, he saw the man. He appeared to have on the same clothes as the day before. He sat like a statue and was watching the group as they took pictures. Marco dialed back the throttle and the engines began to purr as the dive boat coasted up to the dock.

  “There the guy is. He is right there. I think I need to talk to him!” Logan said anxiously to Phillip. He stood and prepared to exit the port side of the vessel as they nosed in.

  “Should I go with you?” Phil asked.

  “I don’t want this to turn into a scene. If that is possible.”

  “Hey, if this guy is anything like that other thing, you may want to take that weird piece of metal with you,” Phillip noted unwilling to rule out any possibilities at that point.

  “I don’t want to walk on the beach with that in my hand. It looks like a weapon. I can put it in my pockets if it will fit.” Before the boat was tied off, Logan leaped onto the dock and made his way to the beach attempting to look as normal as possible. The man turned to look at him then turned back to Ayla completely disinterested in Logan.

  Ayla noticed Logan as he jumped from the boat and onto the dock. She considered walking over and asking him about the dive. He was moving briskly along the wood planks. She hadn’t known him long but the look in his eye gave him away and she reconsidered. He stepped onto the beach and took an approach that did not lead in her direction. She was not the one he was focused on. Sudden disappointment came over her a
s she was interested in learning more about him and was now concerned that the desire was not shared by Logan. That changed when she suddenly realized where the strange man was, and that Logan was heading right for him. Was this about the previous night? She had made it sound like the weirdo was stalking her, which he was. Now, Logan appeared to want to confront the stalker. Ayla was not sure of what to do when someone came up from behind and put a hand on her shoulder. She was startled and turned.

  “Hey beautiful,” a tan shirtless man said as he walked in front of her. He combed the long blond locks with his right hand and looked her in the eyes. He was about her height, perfect hair, and features that were accompanied by an annoying self-confidence.

  Women loved him, but Ayla found his vanity to be a turn-off. She had somehow managed to avoid him all day. But, as luck would have it, he showed up at the worst time. “Hello, Darius,” she replied doing her best to be courteous.

  “I almost thought you were avoiding me,” he said with a smile.

  Logan purposefully walked across the man’s line of sight intending to sit down. The man sat in the middle of the bench in order to keep it to himself and discourage anyone else from sitting. This didn’t leave enough room for Logan, so he plopped down and threw his hip into the stranger’s side forcing him to the other end of the bench. The man let out a subtle growl like an animal.

  “Yeah, they make these benches for two. So, how was your swim last night?” he said while staring at the odd man.

  The man looked briefly at him and offered no response. His look was that of disdain. There was no interest in Logan or his question. He returned his attention to the wedding group.

  “How does a normal man, if you are in fact a normal man, walk into the Caribbean Sea, defy the buoyancy of warm saltwater and disappear last night at two o’clock in the morning, or whatever the time was?” The man turned to look at Logan again, “Yes, Captain Aqualung, I followed you.” Logan pointed to the jetty where he had climbed over.