"Protected access to the water. It must make your diving work easier."
David nodded. In normal diving operations that were taking place from the deck of a ship, the people were always exposed to the forces of nature. When it was bad weather it was often forced to abort. By having a sheltered access to the ocean from within the boat did not have to consider the forces of nature in the same way.
"It does. And with the CX-7 we have a state-of-the-art system that allows us to conduct detailed studies on very deep water, basically all year round." He pointed over to two man-made metal cubes beside the control panel, "There it is."
Jonathan studied the advanced equipment. The two big metallic cubes were black and more than two meters high. They were made of half-inch thick, round aluminum tubes. A jumble of wires and ropes hung down from the top frame. A heavy harness hung empty in the middle of each cube. He had not seen anything like the CX-7 system earlier, just read about it. It was expensive, very expensive, and he was impressed that David and Melissa had been able to install such an equipment at Shooting Star.
"It looks really impressing." He went to one of the cubes, "You will be placed in this?"
David nodded.
"Yes, the two operators are fitted with state-of-the-art control suits and are placed in each cube. They then get a direct link to the robot they control through virtual reality. All control and communication take place using a fiber optic cable and, if necessary, the robot can also send out a smaller, autonomous robot that can be controlled wirelessly ", David went over to the control panel and pointed," Here, the visual impressions are coordinated from the robot to the operators. "
Jonathan picked up a pair of thick glasses hanging in the left cube.
"So, what the robot sees in the water, the operators see too?"
David nodded.
"Yes, it's just as if they are there. There's a lot of data to keep track of during the mission so it's important to share the load. Normally, both operators start and when they're down, depending on their depth of work the operators can take turns to disengage themselves. "
Jonathan raised an eyebrow.
"You really need that?"
David nodded and smiled.
"Yes, you’ll notice that it is quite draining to be an operator in such a system."
Jonathan grinned.
"When are we going in?"
* * *
The darkness wrapped itself around them. The sun rays vanished quickly as they left the surface and began their long journey down to the bottom and the target area. Jonathan breathed heavily as he adjusted his position in the cube, leaned forward and overcompensated. He heard Melissa’s reproachful voice.
“Easy, cowboy, delicate moves."
He took a deep breath and tried again. He felt how David helped him adjust the position so that the robot achieved neutral buoyancy. They floated weightlessly in the water. David's voice sounded hollow in the helmet that Jonathan wore.
"How does it feel?"
Jonathan swore silently when he tried to control the situation. He had not been aware that it was such an advanced virtual system that Shooting Star had, so it had surprised him. The elastic strap tightened over the legs. He adjusted his position. There. Now it was better. He looked around and saw only deep blue sea surrounding him. Even though he knew he was hanging in one of the cubes aboard the ship, it was as though he were in the ocean and descended into the deep. Everything that the robot experienced was sent on to his control suit. He mumbled.
"This is absolutely amazing."
Melissa's voice was clear and crisp.
"Yes, you’re doing just fine, but take it easy in the beginning and make no hasty movements. Remember that you control it together and it requires some adjustment before entering into each other’s rhythm."
Jonathan tried to relax, and David adjusted the controls to their descent into the depths resumed.
"We'll take it easy and quiet down to four hundred meters, where do we stop and take a break. Okay?"
Jonathan struggled to adjust his body so that it matched David.
"Ok."
They had a long way down to the bottom and their goal, the Sandhurst. The Sandhurst was a well-built schooner, but when she went down in the sea in end of the 1990s she had been quite old. She had been sold from an English shipping company to Chile. Jonathan had read the story several times in the last few days and knew it by heart.
Sandhurst's last journey had originated from the Chilean coast and the town of Temuco and her course had been straight to Easter Island. It had been one of four annual trips the ship did and her owner, a local Chilean holding company, had the intention of earning as much money as possible on her before it was time to send her to scrap. But their greed had taken a step too far. When an unexpected storm had struck, Sandhurst had not been able to hold her own. When the waves had smashed over the deck, the captain, the gravely alcoholic Captain Aquilardo, had ordered an emergency call to be sent. But it had been too little and too late.
Sandhurst had gone under and taken all forty-seven souls aboard down into the cold abyss. But one of the passengers had a well-kept secret. A man who went under the mysterious name Mr. N. Oman had sent an encrypted message that had been intercepted.
After a few minutes, they reached four hundred meters, and David's voice was heard.
"So, Jonathan, take a break and I'll continue our descent."
Melissa pressed a button on the control table and the thick glasses slid up on the helmet on Jonathan's head. Sweat ran down in his one eye and he blinked hard to get rid of it. Melissa walked over to him and loosened a hand strap.
"How does it feel?"
Jonathan glanced around the room and felt a heavy dizziness roll over hem. Being in virtual reality could be disorienting and people reacted differently to it. A cold droplet of sweat trickled down his back and he shivered. He tried to look unfazed when he responded.
"Couldn’t be better."
Melissa smiled when she saw him trying to act unaffected. Grateful that she had not dug deeper into the topic, Jonathan took a few more breaths and the room eventually stopped spinning. It splashed water off from the open pool when the fiber optic cord followed the robot down deeper down into the deep. He peered over to the other side and saw David unwaveringly hang motionless in position. Jonathan cleared his throat.
"I’m going back in."
Melissa seemed doubtful.
"Are you sure? You’ll not arrive at Sandhurst for another eleven minutes. You can still rest for a while."
Jonathan shook his head.
"No, I want to go back in again."
She shrugged and pressed a couple of buttons on the control panel.
"Operator two coming online again."
The heavy glasses slipped down from the top of the helmet and Jonathan was again in the deep blue sea. They continued for almost ten minutes when David noted.
"Closing in on the target."
Jonathan sensed how a dark shadow slowly materialized before him and he held his breath when he witnessed the mighty sight of the sunken ship.
David gently navigated to the other side of the wreck. A thick bottom layer of sediment stretched along the hull and gave it a ghostly appearance. Through the center of the hull, a big crack zig-zagged which seemed to have torn the hull in two parts. It looked like a giant had taken hold of the ship to split it into two parts and change its mind when it was nearly torn in two pieces.
Small clouds of sediment drifted over the ship as they moved along the hull. White particles from above slowly fell and the sight in front of them was barely twenty meters. Jonathan pointed to what looked like a dark hole in the ship.
"Look at that, you see it?" and pointed to a larger hole in the book.
David navigated to a position in front of the hole. They hovered before it.
"Yes, that’s quite some hole we’ve got there."
Jonathan carefully studied the shape and noted that the edges of the hole were bent outward as if
an explosion had caused it.
"Looks like the hole was created from some kind of explosion from within the hull." He paused, "I wonder if there was a bomb or something that caused it to sink."
David did not answer but continued adjusting their position. They looked in through the hole but could not see anything. Only different shades of grayish darkness. Jonathan went through their options.
"Can we send in the smaller robot there?"
"Yes, the hole seems big enough for it."
The beetle, as the little robot was nicknamed, was a marvel of mechanical engineering. It was barely a meter-long, remote-controlled underwater robot that could be controlled wirelessly. They were in deep water, but the beetle could manage. David hit the autopilot and turned to the side of the control equipment that controlled the beetle.
"Initiating beetle."
Under the hull, a gap was opened and the beetle in there activated. David conducted a quick diagnosis of the equipment and was satisfied that everything was as it should. The small lights on the control panel shone green.
"Looks good."
Jonathan grinned.
"Let's send it and see what it discovers."
Simultaneously, he activated the holo-screen next to him and a glittering hologram of Sandhurst slid forward under the water. He carefully studied the layout of the ship. She was a relatively large schooner. She was just under sixty feet and had three masts. But now, not much of the former beauty of the ship remained. He brought his finger from the bow back along the hull. He grabbed the hologram and swirled it around. He identified the long corridor in the middle of the hull that went through the whole ship.
Several different rooms were distributed along the corridor. A couple of larger rooms along the back of the hull went half way to the center of the ship. Jonathan assumed that there must be two cargo spaces. Besides one of them, it seemed to be a smaller corridor and at the end of that corridor, it looked like a smaller room. Jonathan pointed to the little strange room.
"That room is the only thing that looks even remotely strange on the whole ship."
David studied the hologram.
"It's still the only one that does not fit?"
Jonathan nodded. He had studied the hull carefully for the last five hours of the flight from Paris. He had read through the last telegram sent from Sandhurst and he saw it in front of him.
It is in a metal box in a smaller side room next to the cargo spaces. The box is made of metal and has no lock. This is possibly my last communication. There seem to be two more people on board who are looking for the box and its contents. Those who are looking for the item apparently have more extensive resources than I was initially aware of. Now in the clear light of the afterthought, it was a mistake. I will do my utmost to keep hidden until we arrive at Easter Island. After that, it is up to God and providence to take over. I send my last thoughts to you. Greetings.
David peered toward the half-sunken hull in front of them.
"Let's send out the beetle to see if we can get any wiser about this."
* * *
He felt how it freed itself. The beetle released from Jack and floated freely in the water. Jonathan took over control of Jack and David over the beetle. David slightly adjusted the buoyancy, and the beetle hovered weightlessly. Melissa's voice was crisp in David’s helmet.
"How does it feel?"
David did a couple of maneuvers and was pleased with the result.
"It feels good. The response is good and smoothly to commands."
Melissa sounded content.
"Excellent, it looks good from here as well. It has power for almost twenty minutes of operation, with a reserve of ten minutes."
“Understood. Jonathan, descend five meters up so I can navigate to a better angle of the hole. "
Jonathan gently pulled up and Jack rose five meters before it once again took up a hovering position.
"Five meters, clear."
"You learn quickly, how does it feel?"
For Jonathan, even though he had a rocky start, it was surprisingly easy to acclimatize to virtual reality. It was as though he was descending into the ocean, but in fact, he was strapped in one of the cubes on Shooting Star. He peered around and saw the dark blue water pass into black fog fifteen yards away. The powerful headlights on Jack illuminated the area in front of them into a dreamlike spectacle.
"Feels good.”
Melissa's voice sounded like it came from the moon, though she sat right next to them in the hull of Shooting Star.
"Well, Jonathan, you're fine. If you take care of Jack, David can take care of the beetle."
Jonathan nodded to himself.
"Sounds good. Keeps position."
David gently eased the beetle closer to the hole in Sandhurst hull. As it got closer, he zoomed into the edges and took a few pictures sent to the computer for analysis. The thorny edges of the hole sparkled as the powerful headlights shone on them.
"If the explosion that lowered Sandhurst had been outside, the edges would have been bent inwards."
Melissa's voice was crisp.
"Analyzes pictures, wait."
Not more than ten seconds later, she spoke again.
"Yes, you seem to be right. The computer confirms that the edges of the metal seem to be largely consistent with an explosion that occurred inside the hull."
Jonathan zoomed in on the hole
"Were there any reports of rescue expeditions when Sandhurst went under?"
"No, not as far as we know. There was an emergency radio call but for unclear reasons, it was not sent. As far as we’ve been able to check, there were no rescue operations."
Jonathan slowly spoke to himself.
"Who would sink the same ship you’re on?"
None of the others said while the beetle slid into the dark hole in the hull. David's voice sounded relieved.
"We're in. The beetle is moving towards the central hall."
When the beetle slid into the Sandhurst, it felt as if it was himself who slipped in through the hole. He turned his head to form an idea of the surroundings. He was in what seemed to be a crew's room. A bed lay upside down on one side and a thick silt covered everything. It felt like he had taken a step back in time and he was extremely careful when maneuvering the beetle.
"Looks like we got into the crew quarters. See if I can find the central corridor."
David moved gently forward, and the beetle slid through the door to the central corridor that went through the whole ship. He kicked left, then right. Large pipes that had loosened from the ceiling, lay like a broken snake on the floor, and he steered forward towards the goal, a smaller load area at the back of the ship.
A dark shadow slipped under him and he looked down to see what it was. Perhaps he had gotten stuck on something as he moved through the water. Something grazed up against him and he screamed. Before Jonathan could react, David swore loudly.
"I'm blind, I can’t see! Something's on me!"
Flor Fria, Macau
March 16, 2049
Fear grew into a hurricane within her. The raging monster swirled around inside her until she had lost all direction. She screamed. Shrieked against the fear and horror that had gripped her and forced her down on one knee. Her heart pounded as furious horse and she thought that this time it might burst from her chest. She swallowed hard and tasted metallic iron.
She wiped her mouth and saw a red trail of blood on her hand. She spat, and the saliva mixed with blood. She closed her eyes and trembled. Normally, the fear that sometimes gripped her would taper off after a few minutes, but this time was different. This time, it held on. No, not only held on but grew. For every passing second, the chaos within accelerated and she fell slowly forward on the cold kitchen floor. She squinted.
The sharp strip of light shimmered and the saliva in front of her glistened. The taste of iron increased, and she tried to calm herself but to no avail. Each time she took a breath, it was as if pure fear streamed into her in
a shrieking torrent. It filled her entire being. Everything that she was and thought about was fear and horror.
While she petrified watched the spit on the floor in front of her, the chaos within increased even more and small, black lines appeared in the corner of her field of vision. It had only happened a few times in her life that she had passed out.
She fought fear and horror with all her might. She trembled and as the seconds ticked by, the trembling increased until she was shaking violently, so much so that she thought she would even lose her grip of the floor.
She breathed hard and the black edges crept inward until her field of vision became a narrow circle. She held her breath. Her heart pounded in her head and waves of fear rolled over her. She drowned. She was sure she would drown. Drown in an ocean of endless fear. Sour stomach acid exploded up in her throat. The black edges had almost met, and her entire world consisted of blood-mixed spit. She swallowed hard but in the next second her stomach contents came hurling through her throat. She vomited over her gnarly, pale hands. The black edges came together, and darkness took her.
***
Noshimi Li woke up with a jerk and the stench was overwhelming. She struggled to open her eyes and noticed that she lay on the kitchen floor. From her point of view, the black and white floorboards looked like a surreal chess board. She gently raised her head, pushed off with her hands and managed to get up in a half-seated position. Her forehead was wet. Her fingers became moist when she touched it. The revolting stench was penetrating. She knew what it was before she saw her fingers. Vomit.
She tried to breathe through her mouth to avoid the worst smell. She crawled out into the bathroom and somehow managed to get into the shower. She tore off her blouse, then her skirt and threw them on the bathroom floor. When she pulled down her panties, she hit her hand and screamed with pain. She swore and massaged it while she curled up like a wounded animal in the corner. The cold tiles gave her goosebumps. Her voice was weak, but she still managed to command the shower.
"Shower on. 39 degrees."
The water immediately began to flow from the nozzle high up on the wall. Noshimi immensely enjoyed the feeling of warm water against her skin. She rubbed her hands and rinsed off her face, hands, and body. She cleaned and scrubbed for several minutes.
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