"Everything, Tina Hammer. Everything," he said, brandishing a wide grin.
5.
On the fourth day, they sailed close to an area the images downloaded from the Exodus had shown to be shallow, and Tina noticed John´s tension as he studied the sonar intently. Running aground was a real danger if they did not pay close attention. In the distance she could see a small island, probably no more than fifty meters across.
"Take us as close as you can. Safely, of course," she said. John barely looked up.
"There´s nothing safe about this," he said, "but we´re here to explore, so we will. Just... Please be quiet." Tina didn´t want to disturb him, so she went forward to where Leah and Li Xao were loading the dinghy. They had two, but the second was fastened to the back of the ship, and intended for emergencies only.
"Ready?" she asked. Leah grinned.
"Sure. Just say the word, and I´ll pull this lever. Just be sure to get onboard first. Better to lower you while you´re inside than having you climb down." Tina couldn´t agree more.
It wasn´t as if she expected to find anything in particular here, but looking at something up close was the only way to really appreciate it sometimes. She had several dozen miniature weather stations though, and she meant to place the first right here, in the middle of the sea separating the continents. It would serve future ships sailing this way well and, given time, it would produce valuable data for meteorology back on Verdi.
"Alright, Miss Hammer, you can board the dinghy now," she heard Captain Turing say. She climbed on board, more nervous than the situation called for. Leah pulled a lever, and the dinghy slowly lowered down the side of the Explorer. Tina sat down in the middle, with Leah behind her and Li Xao in front. Nobody said anything until they splashed down on the water. Leah laughed softly, connecting the fuel cell to the engine, and pressing the start button.
"Now, this is it!" she said, and Tina looked at her, wondering what she meant.
"The waves, do you feel them?" Leah grinned. And Tina felt them. While on board the Explorer, she hadn´t felt much movement, but here, in this small fragile thing, the sea felt wild, like a ferocious animal that could swallow them easily, letting them pass only out of laziness.
"Holy... Sure feels different down here," Tina said. She suddenly got a feeling that she was way out of her league out here. She was a pilot, used to the open skies and she had seen some rough weather up in the air. This was so very different though.
They began moving clear of the ship, toward the island.
It took them less than five minutes before Li Xao shouted loudly, and raised a hand. A few meters yet to go, before they reached dry land, but this was as far as they would get, unless they wanted the dinghy to be crushed on the rocks. Tina wondered for a moment if they would have to swim, but before she could say anything, Li Xao had jumped into the water.
"Cold," he said, voice quivering, but with a broad smile on his face. He stood to his knees, and waded ashore in a few long strides.
"After you," Leah said, and motioned for Tina to follow the Chinzhoi. Tina jumped in and immediately let out a small squeal. Embarrassed, she strode toward land, where Li Xao was waiting, water dripping around him. As soon as Leah had secured the dinghy with a small anchor, she followed.
Exploring the island was quick. It was low, barren, and except for a few lichen, it was cold, empty rock all around. The highest point stood perhaps a meter above sea level at high water. Leah extended a telescope rod, and opened a small pack with spikes that could be inserted into the bare rock with a spike gun. Tina helped her hold the rod level, while Leah shot the spikes into place.
"This should do," the younger woman said, testing the rod. It held steady, two meters tall. Not even the harshest of winter storms would topple this, Tina thought, while inserting the mini weather station into a slot near the top of the rod.
Finished, and with nothing else to do, they began wading out toward the dinghy again.
Suddenly she heard Leah´s scream to her right. Tina turned, and almost toppled over. Leah was standing transfixed.
"Sh... sharks!" Leah shouted. That was when Tina noticed the fins sticking up from the water. Tall, thin, very shark-like fins.
"Oh crap," she whispered and turned toward the dinghy. Leah had begun to move again, and followed right behind her. Li Xao, first to go, had almost reached the dinghy already, and once he was there he jumped aboard. Tina was next, and Li Xao helped her up from the water. She shook, wet from top to toe from scrambling through the water.
One of the fins was right behind Leah when they finally managed to drag her aboard. A big mouth, filled with razor sharp teeth, opened behind her and snapped, close enough for them to smell its foul breath. Leah seemed close to hysterical, screaming her lungs out, curled up on the deck.
"Jeez, what is that?" Tina shouted when the beast stood up on hind legs, making it as tall as her. Amphibian, Tina realized.
The dinghy moved backwards, and she almost lost her balance. Li Xao had managed to start the engine, and they were moving in reverse as fast as possible. The beast followed, but slowly afoot, trudging clumsily through the shallow water. Then it dived down and picked up speed almost immediately before the fin disappeared below water. The dinghy continued its reverse movement.
Something struck, just behind the prow, and Tina fell hard. She looked around frantically.
"Is there any damage? Are we taking in water?" she shouted. Li Xao was busy steering through the treacherous waters, and Leah still lay curled up. Tina realized there was nobody but herself to check. She looked around and didn´t notice anything when the dinghy rocked again, struck by something on the port side. This time the damage was obvious. A spray of water through a crack told her everything. If they didn´t get away from this... whatever it was... they would sink.
"Li Xao, how long before we reach deep water?" She said. The Chinzhoi shrugged, lips pursed and a frown she hadn´t seen before.
"One minute, two minutes. Not know," he said. Tina looked around, searching for something, anything that could be used as a weapon. She tossed aside provisions, already soaked from the incoming water.
There, a flare gun fixed just below the railing. She grabbed its handle and yanked it free. Then she bent over the railing to try and spot the beast. While she was staring down into the water, she thought that "beast" was pretty appropriate for what was hunting them, but it needed a proper name. Since her team was the ones to discover it, they had dibs on choosing one for it. She shook the thought away and continued searching.
The beast surfaced a good ten meters away, standing once again. Now, Tina noticed it didn´t have fore legs or arms, just the fins; two smaller ones on each side besides the large one on its back that they had seen when it swam. It stood still, and roared after them while they floated away.
"It doesn´t leave the shallows," a thin voice behind her said. Leah had sat up and peered across the railing at the creature.
"Perfectly adapted to life here, able to live on the little island, and with plenty of food in the sea it probably lives well here," she said. Tina looked at her. She looked roughed up, but unharmed, and her eyes now had life in them again.
"But why doesn´t it leave the shallows?" she asked, as if to herself. Tina looked at the water filling the dinghy. They would reach the Explorer in a few minutes, and as long as the damage didn´t suddenly worsen, they would make it safely, with good margin. She looked back at the still standing beast, which made no move at all to follow them, and suddenly it looked less fearsome to her.
"It´s afraid of something. Trapped in there because something out here scares the hell out of it," she said, noticing that Leah had had the exact same thought.
"And it´s not us," Leah said.
6.
"Land ahoy!" Peter shouted from the prow, and everybody scrambled to get a better view. Tina ended up beside Roger, who had been busy repairing the damaged dinghy. They all knew they would reach the coast today, after all, they had satell
ite images, but even so, there had been a tense mood of anticipation for what they might find.
It was too early to see anything but the outline of the continent, of course, but still, they were finally here. They had reached Rossi, the northern continent, and if everything went well, they would soon set foot on it as the first humans ever. Well, the first humans from Earth, Tina thought, knowing that Maria Solis´ discoveries toward the end of the war had changed everything about that. But for Tina, it didn´t matter. She didn´t think much about the first humans, or whatever they might have left behind, because the only thing she had seen of them were the murals in the Akhab caves on northern Verdi. As far as she was concerned, they would be the first of the Aurorans to reach Rossi, and it was all new land, ready to be explored. She briefly wondered if there were Akhab this far north as well. Highly possible, she thought, since the Akhab were far more advanced than they let on.
"It´s still early," Roger said, "I guess we´ll be able to land sometime this afternoon."
"We´ll see. It all depends on finding a good place to anchor. I really don´t want to take the dinghy any farther than I have too," Tina said, still a bit shaken from the encounter in the shallows a couple of days ago.
An hour later they were lowering the patched up dinghy. They were about a hundred meters out, and after a brief debate, they had come to the conclusion that they had to take a chance, or they wouldn´t be able to come ashore here, since the sea closer to land was filled with reefs and jutting rocks. Tina had asked Li Xao and Peter to come along, and she could tell Leah was relieved. The girl would have to deal with the trauma at some point, but for now, Tina thought it would be best to let her be. Besides, Peter had seemed eager to go.
The dinghy splashed down, heavier this time, since they had brought all the provisions needed to build a depot here.
The journey to land was uneventful, except for the tension of knowing that some of the reefs were sharp enough to cut the dinghy open. Li Xao anchored the dinghy just a few meters out, and they waded ashore. Tina had spotted a good place, solid rock, which seemed safe to put the depot, and they carried the provisions there, piece by piece.
The land here looked fertile, and there was a stream running just east of where they put the depot.
"If we could map the reefs and find a safe way to shore for a larger ship, this would make a good place to settle," Peter said. Tina smiled at him.
"Settling, Peter? I thought you wanted to explore the planet." Peter laughed back.
"Yeah, but even a sailor needs a home. And sooner or later we´re going to settle new land. Look at that," he said, pointing inland, where mountains rose in the distance, above a thick, lush forest.
"I bet there are minerals there, and the woods... The ocean, fresh water, this is the perfect spot for a town, I´m telling you." He got a dreamy look in his eyes, and Tina turned away. He was right, of course. But she had settled once, and that little town was nothing but a scorched ruin now. She wondered if she´d ever settle again.
7.
The Explorer was sailing northwest, about a kilometer off the coast. Tina and Captain Turing were mapping the coastline thoroughly, using their eyesight, electronic measurements, and images from the Exodus to draw up accurate maps for future travelers. Roger kept muttering about leaving behind such a large part of their provisions back at the depot, but even he seemed to see the sense in it after a while.
Rossi was very different from Verdi, their "home" continent, in that it was less varied. While Verdi had vast expanses of grasslands, rolling hills and high mountains, lakes and forests, Rossi looked the same to them every day. The coast was stony and irregular, and inland there was thick forest, with trees taller than anything Tina had seen on Verdi. Further away the mountains rose high up, above the tree line and some of the peaks seemed permanently clouded in mist. It was a magnificent sight, although not the most varied.
After a week they began noticing white covering more than just the highest peaks, and soon it covered the entire mountain range. Even with summer approaching, they would soon be far enough north that most of the land would be covered in permanent ice and snow. They even saw icebergs floating by, silently riding the current south toward their inevitable end. Tina had begun to consider how far north they should go before turning back. They still had most of summer and if they kept to the southern coast they would be able to explore the coastline well into autumn.
Each day Peter and Li Xao fished, and it was amazing how rich the seas were. They had barely tapped their provisions, except for whatever they needed for variety. Even if they had to spend the winter on Rossi, they would have plenty of food, something even Roger agreed with.
Leah seemed fine again. Tina had worried about her for a while, but now the girl seemed the same, outgoing, competent sailor she had been before their run-in with what they had begun calling the Shark Man. Sometimes though, when Tina thought back on the beast, standing in the shallows while they fled, not daring to venture out from its territory, she could not help thinking there had to be even worse creatures out there, hidden from sight by a peaceful surface. She checked the flare guns and the rifles every day, making sure everything was ready, should anything happen. But somehow, she knew that if it did, flare guns or rifles would likely not be of much use. They were six tiny humans in a sea of the unknown, and none of them had any idea of what might be lurking in the deep.
8.
Nearly another week had passed, and Tina had finally made her decision.
"Alright. It´s settled then. We turn around," Tina said, ending the discussion. Even though Captain Turing was the captain on board, and technically in charge of such decisions, everyone listened to Tina, and she had final word on just about everything. In this matter though, John Turing and Tina were in full agreement. Leah and Li Xao followed Tina´s lead, while Roger and Peter had wanted to continue, clearly unsatisfied with the decision to turn around. But although Tina always listened to everyone, and valued their opinions, ultimately it was up to her.
"So next stop will be the depot," she said, "and after that we´ll explore the coastline to the east. And if we get far enough, and we find a good place to winter, we might be able to cross over to Cerula in Spring before we have to head back to Verdi." Most of them nodded or murmured agreement, since they all wanted to cover as much area as possible.
Captain Turing went and turned the Explorer around, and they sailed southeast with Cancri behind them, warming their backs. Tina walked up to Peter, who had gone to the prow after their meeting. She wanted to speak to him, just to make sure everything was okay between them. With such a small crew, she wanted as little friction as possible, and even small disagreements could grow worse, if left unchecked.
"We should keep a close watch for more icebergs, especially at night," she said, standing beside him looking out at the open sea. He nodded.
"I think I saw something just a moment ago," he said.
"Iceberg?" Tina asked, creasing her brow, peering down at the froth where the rolling waves broke on the ship.
"Maybe. But if so, we´ve already passed it. Sonar didn´t see it though, so it can´t have been a big one." Tina exhaled. They had the equipment to detect most things underwater, so if the sonar hadn´t discovered it, it must have been too small to pose much of a danger to them. Her train of thought was interrupted by Peter´s voice.
"There it is again," he said. It took her a couple of seconds before she noticed, but when she did, she saw it clearly. The sea rippled, as if the ocean itself was boiling, and it was close, just a hundred meters out on the starboard side.
"What is that?” she asked.
"I have no idea, but it´s closer than before," Peter said. He pushed a button and lifted the mic of the ship´s comms system. Captain Turing though, had already noticed, and was turning the Explorer to port. Tina´s eyes were fixed on the strange phenomenon, and she almost didn´t see the new bubbles rising just a few meters out.
The sonar bleeped, and suddenly eve
ry system rigged to detect underwater dangers was going off at once. The ship shook as a strong current pushed it swiftly further to port, before something huge began rising through the surface. Tina stumbled, but kept her eyes fixed on the thing in front of her.
The being rising out of the water had a head that reminded Tina of old fairy tales of knights and dragons, and it was huge. Sea dragon, Tina thought absently, while crawling backwards, away from the railing.
Its head was as tall as her, covered with scales and the eyes were big as saucers. The water seemed to be boiling around it as it rose, and Tina suddenly noticed the heat from its breath, as it hovered over the ship, tiny in comparison to this beast.
The sea dragon attacked without warning. Enormous jaws opened, revealing fangs as long as an arm, and came down on the deck, splintering boards and shattering the railing underneath its neck. Tina heard screams. She was a soldier, used to danger, but she realized she had frozen, unable to flee or fight. All she could do was watch as the sea dragon came at the Explorer, tearing up the ship like it was a toy, right before her eyes. Someone jumped off the railing into the froth below, but Tina remained transfixed on the beast, its shiny blue and green scales, while flames spewed from its mouth set the sails ablaze.
She felt a spray of cool water, just seconds before the ship toppled over and she was thrust into the cold water. She unfroze, and began scrambling for something to hold on to. Something brushed past her, and she grabbed for it, securing a tight grasp. An open crate of some sort, floating. She held on tightly. Something fell into the water beside her. Part of the broken railing. Everything was too chaotic, she didn´t see anyone around her, but she heard shouting nearby.
Something struck her head. Hard. She felt her strength whither, and lost her grip on the crate. Everything went dark, but she could still hear the noise around her. So this is it, she thought. She slipped into darkness, feeling the water entering her nose and ears, drowning out the sounds. She sank, and calm filled her. She wouldn´t fight back. Not this time.
Explorer Page 2
