Universal Code

by William Songy

  Ayla looked over the gunnel and into the clear waters. Her eyes followed the barnacle coated steel columns as they seemed to disappear into infinity. It was as haunting as the structure itself. She wondered about the extent of damage done to the steel columns that supported the rig. It was undeniable that it had withstood hurricanes. A school of blue-striped grunts casually swam beneath the boat as if checking it out, then abruptly darted into all directions possibly distracted by something. The grunts startled a passing hogfish causing it to flex its spiked dorsal fin as it sped off toward the interior of the structure for protection.

  Something deep below the boat caught her eye. Her stomach knotted up at the prospect of another confrontation with an unknown creature like in Tulum and St. Lucia. It began as a tiny dark spot rising out of the dark blue abyss. Perhaps it was a large fish, but it was getting larger and closer. The unknown creature was moving straight up a stanchion toward the surface. Ayla knew that fish did not swim in that manner. She yelled out and demanded that Logan detach the rig hook and back the boat away until they knew what they were dealing with, but he was gone. It was still coming and getting larger. Tiny bubbles broke the surface. She panned the boat then followed the stairs. She caught a glimpse of Logan as he stepped onto the upper platform and out of sight.

  The dark figure was getting closer and there was no doubt that the boat was its objective. She looked at the platform and back down at the approaching distorted image. The thing made tiny bubbles, so she ruled out that it was a scuba diver. Besides, there was no other boat to be seen in any direction. They had to be the only people on the rig. She considered climbing up onto the rig but wasn’t certain of what they were going to do if something happened to the boat. She was not about to be stranded on the rig with the monotonous deep-toned beeping noise. She would find the horn and destroy it. It was obvious that a confrontation was imminent.

  Ayla decided to face the creature rather than run from it. She couldn’t continue to let Logan do the fighting. If these things wanted her, then the least she could do was put up a better fight than she had in Tulum. Ayla ran and hid while everyone else, with the exception of Dr. Smith, was slaughtered. The guilt of surviving while the others died never subsided. In reality, Ayla knew that she was every bit as defenseless against the creatures as the others had been. What would she have done differently? The thought made her recall the bang stick Phil had stuck and fired into the chest cavity of the creature on St. Lucia. It did have an effect on the alien creature, perhaps not to the extent of the telenium, but it undoubtedly wounded it. Would it be illogical, considering the looming threats, that Logan had prepared for their defense by having weapons onboard? Certainly, both of them were not able to wield the weird metal he found at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea.

  She threw open the seat and had to hold the lid up with one hand as the thick padding pushed against the gunnel and tried to slam it shut. “Lead weights and spray lubricant!” she said in dismay. One eight and three five-pound weights were the extent of the weaponry she found in the first bin. She glanced over to see how much time remained and realized it was fading quickly. There was no time to search every compartment, so she grabbed the eight-pound weight and decided to drop it on the creature’s head as it drew closer to the surface. As a matter of physics, the friction of the water with the contour of the lead weight that was made to fit comfortably around a man’s waist could mean that if she dropped it too early, the water would push it off to the side and miss the creature completely.

  When she looked over the gunnel again, the thing had made much quicker progress than expected causing her to lift up the weight in preparation to toss it over. Ayla paused for an extra second and looked. It no longer was unrecognizable and looked to be a man. She stepped back. The head broke the surface and saw Ayla.

  The man thrust a thirty-pound red snapper at her, pulled off his headgear and said, “Here take this. I’m being followed by a grouper. He wants to steal it. The darn things are worse than the sharks.”

  She paused for a second staring at the stranger wondering who the man was and why she would help him with the fish. Ayla realized why the shape of the shadow, while submerged deep below the surface, had looked so foreign to her. He was wearing a full mask with a rebreather which wasn’t round like a tank. He made small bubbles as was not typical with traditional SCUBA divers. This had thrown her off. The large fish hanging on his right side added to the confusion.

  Uncertain of what was going on, she grabbed the shaft of the spear and nearly dropped the large snapper when she pulled it onto the platform and into the boat. The spear had punctured it right behind the gills, an instant kill shot. Blood began to pool in the boat. Ayla hardly had time to find the correct compartment in which to store it before a mask and a pair of fins were being tossed onto the platform. The guy flipped off his buoyancy compensator and set it on the rear of the boat with the other gear. Ayla was at a loss as to what was going on but assumed that this was the person they came to meet. Although there was no confirmation at that point it was the only logical explanation. Why was the guy out here all alone with no other boat in sight? How did he get out here?

  The man reached up and pulled down the ladder, extended it and then climbed up and onto the boat. Ayla had yet to put away the dead snapper and continued to hold the lead weight tightly in her hand. “Who are you and why are you out here?”

  “I could ask you the same thing. But then, I already know the answer,” he replied shaking the water from his brown crew cut.

  “Gunner! There you are,” Logan’s voice called out from above. He walked down the stairs to the lower platform then stepped onto the boat. The two men shook hands and embraced. “Were you going to hit him with that?” Logan asked as Ayla was still holding the weight.

  “Yeah, nearly carked it. I was about to give you a headache mate. This was all I had time to find,” she turned back to Gunner.

  “This is the guy we came out here to meet. This is Gunner Dawson…a lifelong friend of mine,” Logan said.

  He reached out and shook her hand. Ayla almost tossed the weight overboard in frustration but decided to put it back in place instead. The guy had scared her, and she had experienced enough fear in recent memory to last a lifetime. He looked at Ayla, “I was getting something to eat. I figured you guys might be hungry…I know that I am.” He retrieved the snapper, spun the spear tip then pulled the cable and tip out of the hole made by the impact. Gunner walked over to the metal grate, stood on the gunnel and tossed the snapper on to the platform. He reached down and pulled a nine-inch stainless steel knife from a sheath that was strapped on his right calf. “I wasn’t sure when you were going to get here,” Gunner said as he sliced up the belly, removed the entrails and tossed them into the water. The head quickly followed and made a sound similar to that of a large stone being tossed into a pond. He looked at Ayla again, “To answer your other question, I was dropped off about a mile to the south and swam here.”

  She looked inquisitively at Logan. He nodded confirming Gunner’s claim. “How and why would you do such a thing?”

  “I haven’t always gotten here that way, just this time. I really felt like I needed to be extra cautious.” Gunner forgot the fish for a second and turned back toward them. His hands were covered in blood from the snapper. He looked oddly at Ayla then to Logan as if reconsidering her comment almost in disbelief of what she had asked. As if reading his mind, Logan said, “A mutual friend of ours came by before we left and swept the boat. We had a small electronic infestation that was remedied.”

  “I guess you didn’t tell her?” Gunner asked. “Let’s be clear about this. We all need to understand you are risking going to jail by talking to me. We are dealing with classified information that technically I am not supposed to share. You can leave now but I have information that may help you and you have some that may help me. Every word, every movement, every breath you take, at least prior to coming here, is being documented. You’re being followed,
your vehicles, his house, are bugged and under surveillance…this you know. I’ve taken some steps to fly under radar…especially keeping this place quiet. This is the most secure place I could find. We should be safe here, but nothing is guaranteed.”

  “No, I didn’t have to tell her. We had a little incident at my house…kind of hard to explain,” Logan said referring to the appearance of the surveillance equipment and the writing on the note pad. “Too many people are interested in us now. I know we are being followed…on the mainland and I’m not sure how many different groups, agencies are monitoring us. It seems like my house was a little overdone. Too many bugs for the Feds it would seem. Anyway, what is this rig doing out here? If you know about it, I’m sure a lot of others do as well.”

  Gunner’s attention returned to the snapper. The knife was sharp and moved effortlessly as he held the tail and ran the blade down the spine. After the pass, he held out a large piece of boneless meat for them to see. “Nice filets? Red snapper is my favorite fish. So, we all understand what we are getting into?”

  “Yes,” Ayla replied with a shrug of the shoulders.

  “Politicians seem to mishandle classified information…even illegally leak it to the press all the time and walk away from it. But we aren’t so privileged,” Logan noted.

  “To answer your question, I was studying some charts and noticed this rig. I came out here one day to see what it was about and to catch some fish. As you can see the structure has a lot of marine life on it. Anyway, I did a little research. This is your tax dollars hard at work. This was a ‘research’ facility. This place never produced a barrel of anything, but information. The original intent was for oceanographic research, but after it was constructed, funding was allocated toward other more important projects. Then, this seemed like the perfect place to,” Gunner paused and looked at Ayla considering how much information he wanted to give out, “to get other information.”

  “On Cuba?” Ayla asked.

  “No. Ironically, like the very things we are here to discuss. We have known about them for a long time,” Gunner replied, “way before your experience in Tulum.” Gunner tossed the scale coated skins into the water with the rest of the unwanted parts of the snapper then reached over the gunnel and cleaned the filets, his hands and the knife before sliding it back into the sheath on his leg. He turned then sat on the gunnel and looked at her, “Did you wonder why Dr. Smith had so much muscle with him? Why in the world did he need four heavily armed guards?”

  “John asked him about that?” Ayla recalled the moment when he inquired about the armed guides. She considered that it was due to an uptick in crime, or the looting of artifacts should anyone learn about what he had found.

  “Weeks before you were contacted by Dr. Smith to come over and give him assistance, he made a phone call to the local authorities. He testified to having seen a handful of ‘tall, scaly, humanoid type creatures’ late one night. He watched them walk from the water and enter the woods on the beach near the Tulum site. The Doctor followed them down that trail and they disappeared. He had no idea what the ‘bipeds’ were or what they were after. That’s when he discovered the site.”

  “How did you know John said that?” Ayla asked staring intently at Gunner.

  “Do you remember the short Hispanic guide with the red bandana? His name was Antonio?” Gunner watched her face light up when recognizing the name.

  “Yes, he was killed,” she looked at Logan then back to Gunner.

  “He was undercover. Everything you all said was recorded and most of it was filmed. Good thing you didn’t take a leak in the woods. He had a small camera hidden in one of the buttons on his shirt. While it didn’t exactly record in HD quality, most of the attack was recorded…up to the point when Antonio himself was killed. I actually have a copy of it,” Gunner said.

  “How did you get this stuff? Why is it worth you going to jail over?” Logan asked.

  “So, you guys were tapping the phone lines of the local police department and caught the conversation? Then sent in undercover agents?” Ayla asked. “To make this even crazier, he knew those things were out there…no, even worse, they led him to the site. And then he asked John and me to come anyway and withheld information. He even acted like he didn’t believe in aliens at the time. He deliberately put us in that situation!” she said while raising her voice in anger. “The presence of the American military was a bit hard to understand. They seemed to take over the whole peninsula and ran the investigation, despite being outside of the States,” Ayla noted.

  “Look, Dr. Smith was desperate to understand and he had no way to know what they were or how aggressive they would be. There were no reported attacks on humans at that point. He wanted to try and understand their future intentions by understanding their past actions. The good doctor knew you were one of the best and most qualified to interpret the hieroglyphs correctly. I don’t think he really believed that you were at risk,” Gunner said attempting to calm Ayla down.

  “Well, the hieroglyphs and detailed drawings in the cave were pretty conclusive. These were of the same likeness of the things I saw. They were marked…an oval with a large V cutting through the center. It was on the glyphs in the drawings of them murdering the tribal leaders…cutting off their heads and taking the people. I must have missed the one with them bringing cupcakes and peace offerings…the one that caused so much confusion. What I saw was pretty cut and dry. He didn’t need us for that,” she threw her hands in the air.

  Gunner looked at her when she described the symbol, “THAT was what I needed to hear. That is what I was afraid of.” He picked up the neoprene glove he wore while spearfishing on the rig and put them back on. He looked at Logan, “Did you bring the gloves?” he asked before picking up the two filets and stepping onto the platform.

  Logan passed a pair of latex gloves to Ayla, “I guess we’re worried about fingerprints and DNA.”

  Before putting on the gloves, Ayla pulled the elastic ring out of her hair, twisted it and fixed the bun on the back of her head, then put the ring back in. She stepped off the gunnel and onto the rig. They climbed up three flights of rusted stairs and stepped out onto the metal platform. The immediate area was open and she could see the layout. On the far side, two more levels that looked like sleeping quarters were crowned with a third that appeared to be the office. Windows gave a full view of every direction. To their right was a landing pad for a helicopter and she wondered how long it had been since it was used.

  Ayla turned in a full circle looking for any sign of land or water-bound craft that was close to the rig. The lack of land within reasonable distance was still a cause for concern. Despite this, she was relieved to see that no visible military or Coast Guard vessels were moving in their direction for the moment.

  They crossed over the deck and seemed as if they were going to go up to one of the other levels when Gunner unexpectedly turned to his right. They passed under a bridge that connected the barracks to an elevated platform where a crane may have once been mounted. Water must have pooled and seeped from holes where anchors had once been as there was a series of irritating drips somewhere near the center. The small streams of water followed the path of least resistance in a jagged pattern which led to the rear of the rig and spilled over into the Gulf.

  Five metal shipping containers remained on the upper platform. He grabbed the lever of one on the far left, jerked it upward and pulled open one side of the container’s doors. The squeaking sound of rusted metal on metal rang out and was as penetrating as fingernails on a chalkboard. How far would the sound travel, and who would be able to hear it, Ayla did not know? But she half expected something to crawl out of the water and make its way toward them.

  Gunner threw a switch and the interior came to life as illuminated light bulbs dangling on crudely run wiring lit up the storage container. It seemed as if the slightest breeze would send the bulbs crashing to the metal floor. On the right was a series of monitors showing real-time results of the on
going surveillance taking place around the rig. On the wall behind the monitors twenty-four, eight by eleven photos were displayed.

  “We were en route to Venezuela and had just passed to the south of St. Vincent when all of a sudden, we went dark. Dead in the water. I mean the whole fleet. No power, no lights, no defense…nothing. We see these lights under the water and then this happens,” Gunner said gesturing to the photos, “these strange craft levitate out of the water. No sound, no propulsion. I’m not sure what powered them or how they defied gravity, but the only thing I could hear was the sound of men, wind, and waves.

  Ayla pointed to the first photo and noted the shape and bright blue-white color. As she moved further to her left there was a photo of the underbelly with the symbol. “This is the bloody symbol I was talking about,” her hands shook mildly, and both men took notice. “The oval with the V cut through it. This was…seemed like it was branded into the wrists of these things. It looked like a scar from a burn. They are called the Tisht. The two that killed everyone in Tulum had it on their weaponry and gear.”

  “How did you get a name?” Gunner asked.

  “A similar creature was in my room after the tsunami in St. Lucia. It was rummaging through my stuff and we walked up and caught it looking for something. I killed it,” he saw Gunner’s face light up with more questions, “killing it wasn’t easy. I fought one earlier that day on the beach. If it wasn’t for this, I think it would have killed me,” Logan held up the piece of telenium, “anyway, this guy shows up and starts telling us that he is from another planet and tells us about these things. He said the one in the room and the one from the beach were from a place called Tavoy. He referred to the ones with this strange mark as Tish. He said something about another alien, from the water, as a Kurun. He said they are working together and artificially caused natural disasters to occur in order to create a diversion to take people. It is an intergalactic human trafficking ring. These people are taken to other planets and sold.”