The Neptune Promise

by Polly Holyoke

  :You’re more apt to find a bunch of muck on the bottom and some giant clams,: Dai mutters.

  He still seems to be in a grumpy mood as we leave the mess together. :I don’t understand why they have you practicing rescues on a wreck in Beware Passage,: he says to me. :The currents there are crazy dangerous.:

  :Maybe it’s because there are crazy dangerous currents all over these waters and we need to learn how to deal with them.: Because of the huge tidal ranges and many narrow inlets and passages in this region, currents are incredibly strong around here.

  :I also don’t understand why they didn’t choose me to come, too.: When Dai frowns, he looks like an angry teen archangel with his high cheekbones and striking black brows. :Your dad must know I’m more comfortable in the deep than anyone at Safety Harbor.:

  :Maybe he’s too happy with the work you’re doing on your deep-water corals to take you off that project. Have you and Roni decided yet if that gorgonian you found is a new subspecies?:

  Dai lights up at the question. I feel guilty about distracting him, but he’s off and talking about the latest gorgonian he’s discovered. I think I like Dai best when he’s being a total dweeb about his corals.

  After a two-hour tow ride out to Beware Passage, our salvage team gathers for our dive briefing. My dad is here today and he introduces us to the Carly Sue’s captain, an older man with a weathered face and shrewd brown eyes.

  “Captain Gonzalez could write a book based on his years of experience with deep-water rescue and salvage operations,” Dad says.

  “The Skookumaru, the wreck you’ll dive today, was a big fishing trawler,” Captain Gonzalez explains to us. “She went down in this pass twenty years ago, so her hull and bulkheads should still be in pretty good shape. We want you to practice setting a penetration line that will help keep you from getting lost once you enter the wreck. I know you kids can breathe water, but most trouble in wreck dives starts when divers lose their bearings and can’t find their way out fast enough.”

  “The water in the pass is moving fairly strongly right now,” Dad tells us, “but our sensors along the anchor chain aren’t reporting anything over six knots.” He holds up something that looks like a climbing harness. “We’re going to send you down in these current rigs. You’ll clip yourselves to the anchor chain which should keep you from being swept away by the powerful currents you may encounter at deeper depths.”

  Captain Gonzalez hands each of us a current rig. Made from webbing that crosses our shoulders and hips, they fit much like climbing harnesses. After checking each other’s rigs and plugging in our heating packs, we line up to dive in off the stern.

  “You sure you want to do that?” Captain Gonzalez asks us with a quizzical smile.

  “Do what?” Thom asks, already poised to jump in.

  “Go on then.”

  We splash off the back of the Carly Sue, and within moments I realize why Captain Gonzalez is laughing at us. To reach the anchor chain off the bow, we have to swim hard against the current. We would have saved ourselves a ton of effort if we’d gone off the front of the boat.

  After everyone reaches the anchor chain, we clip our harnesses to it with carabiners and begin our descent. Fifty feet down, the current strengthens. By a hundred feet we’ve lost all light, and I’m glad we have the harnesses. The black water shoves at our bodies, pushing us horizontal while we use our hands on the anchor line to steady ourselves.

  The current peters out around two hundred feet, and we descend more rapidly into the dark, cold depths. At four hundred feet, it returns stronger than ever. But the current sensor attached to the anchor line is reporting only four knots of current.

  :Gee, this is fun,: Thom says, his big hands wrapped around the anchor line. :I feel like the current is trying to push my eyeballs in.:

  :It does feel like we’re being dragged behind a boat going at least ten knots,: I say.

  :Then there’s got to be something wrong with this current sensor,: Kalli decides. :You’d better report it topside.:

  :Hey, Janni,: I call out to her. :We’re pretty sure the sensor at four hundred feet is malfunctioning. It’s reading four knots, but the current down here feels closer to twelve. We’re hanging on by our fingernails.:

  :Roger that,: she replies, and then a minute later she says, :Captain Gonzalez wants you to try descending another twenty feet, and if the current doesn’t ease up, we’ll scrub the testing for today.:

  :Roger, over and out,: I reply.

  I start pulling my way down the anchor line again, but the current just gets stronger. I feel like I’m getting blasted by a fire hose. I let go of the anchor line to key into my wrist computer our official decision to scrub today’s practice dive.

  A heartbeat later, the metal clip holding my harness to the anchor line snaps.

  chapter seven

  A second after my carabiner breaks, I’m tumbling head over heels through the terrifying blackness. I fight to right myself, but it’s hard to get my bearings in the rushing dark. I need to swim up and out of the current, but which way is up?

  Frantically I try to remember the chart they showed us this morning during our briefing. I’m pretty sure there’s an island a mile due south of the wreck, which means this current is carrying me straight at it. In a very few minutes I could smash into a wall covered with poisonous sharp corals and spiky sea urchins.

  :Densil, I’M IN TROUBLE!: I shout.

  :we come,: I hear his reply, but the contact is so faint, the current must have already carried me far from the Carly Sue. I’m down so deep and moving so fast, my dolphin friends won’t be able to catch up to me. There’s nothing my father or his staff can do, either, with four hundred feet of black sea between us. I’m on my own.

  Thom, Ree, and Kalli are all yelling at Janni and at me.

  :DON’T COME AFTER ME, there’s no way you can help,: I shout at them and then I focus on trying to stay alive.

  Dizzy from rolling over so many times, I kick my legs until I finally stabilize myself enough to switch on the dive torch strapped to my right arm. I need bubbles to show me which way is up, and then I remember the chart sealed in a small plastic case they handed us at our topside briefing. A tiny bit of air may be trapped in it.

  I fumble at the case clipped to my dive belt, my fingers stiff from the cold. I open the pouch, and four precious bubbles escape. I watch them jerk and float in the current and disappear. Now at least I know which way to kick.

  There’s never any point in fighting a strong current. I have to use my strength to swim up and out of it. After several kicks, I realize my heavy heating pack is weighing me down. But if I get rid of the pack, the cold ocean will steal my body heat even faster, and I could die of hypothermia.

  Seconds later, I wriggle out of the pack. For now I’m more worried about getting smashed into the rocky foundation of that island ahead of me. I’ll worry about dying of hypothermia later. The moment I drop the heavy heating pack, I make better progress.

  I try to do the math in my head as I kick steadily toward the surface. If the current is carrying me along at twelve knots, I could travel a mile in five minutes. That means I could hit the steep rock base of that island any time now. I kick harder and keep my dive light shining straight ahead, so I’ll have some warning. Because the visibility is only ten feet, it won’t be much of a warning.

  If I get lucky, the current will sweep me past the island’s rocky roots. If I’m unlucky, I’ll crash right into an outcropping or a big coral jutting out from them.

  Suddenly, the first rock wall looms out of the darkness. I have just enough time to pull my legs up so I can fend myself off it with my feet and fins. The current bends around the wall and carries me speeding along it. The beam from my dive light dances across a brilliant display of white sponges, orange gorgonian corals with wide-branching arms and maroon spiny urchins. They’re beautiful, but I don’t want to be slammed into them.

  Hurtling along the wall, I start carefully kicking
my way upward again. To judge my progress, I steal a glance at my dive computer. Suddenly, a rock spire covered with corals appears out of the dark. I hit it with enough force to leave me gasping, and then the relentless current rolls and scrapes me along the side of the spire. I cover my face with my arms to protect my eyes. Something sharp stings my knee and my arm.

  The spire falls away and I’m flying through the darkness, but now I’m facing backward to the current. I have to get turned around. I have to see where I’m going!

  I’m still fighting to turn around when the current slams me into another rock. The back of my head hits something hard. Lights explode across my vision and then everything goes dark.

  ~~~

  Sometime later I wake up. I’ve stopped tumbling through the blackness. The current presses on my chest like a massive boulder, and my body feels frozen. Such throbbing pain shoots through my head, I can’t think. Gradually I figure out that I’m pinned against something sharp and bumpy.

  I look down at my wrist. My dive torch is still on. Concentrating hard, I manage to lift my arm and shine the torch around. The current is pushing me against a big orange coral with branching arms. I’m not sure how long I blacked out, but it couldn’t have been too long, or the cold would have killed me.

  And it is horribly, terribly cold. I’m shaking inside my thick wetsuit. I try to remember what I learned about hypothermia during our Sea Ranger training. It’s good that I’m still shivering, isn’t it? It’s when you stop that you’re in real danger.

  I’m not sure because my brain feels so muddled. Shivering or not, I’m in trouble. I’ll die of hypothermia if I stay here much longer. I have to get free of this coral and this current, but my legs and arms feel so heavy.

  :NERE?: I hear Dai’s frantic shout. :Where are you?:

  I’ve never been so happy to hear his mental voice. :I-I’m pinned against one of your big corals.:

  :You sound pretty weak. You okay?:

  :I hit my head and I’m super cold.:

  :Hang in there. The dolphins and I are coming to get you. Where exactly is that coral?: I can feel the panic he’s trying to hide from me.

  :Along the base of the island… south of the wreck, I think.:

  :How deep?:

  I fight to raise my wrist again. When finally I get my dive computer in front of my face, I want to cry. I can’t make my eyes focus on the numbers.

  :Th-think I’m down around three hundred feet.:

  I try to stay awake, but my eyelids are so heavy, my head pounds and I’m so tired.

  :Nere, don’t pass out again. Keep talking to me. What kind of coral is it?:

  :One of your gorgonians. A big one.:

  :See, they do have some practical uses. How’d you get swept away?:

  :N-not my fault. Carabiner broke.:

  :I didn’t say it was your fault,: he says, his tone gentler, :but I still think it was stupid to practice rescues in strong current.:

  :Now you get to practice the real thing. Think I’ll just close my eyes for a bit...:

  I let my eyelids slide shut again. The next time I wake up, something pokes my shoulder gently. I force my eyes open. Densil and Ton peer at me.

  :Hi, guys.: I try to smile at them, but my face is too cold. Ton flashes away into the dark.

  :your heart beats too slowly,: Densil says, his dolphin voice tinged with worry.

  :Look on the bright side. At least my heart is still is beating.:

  :where is this bright side? I do not see it. it is all dark down here.: Densil says, and the bafflement in his voice makes me want to smile.

  :Sorry. I was using figurative language again,: which I usually try to avoid when talking to my dolphin friends because they are so literal.

  :There you are,: a familiar voice breaks in on our conversation.

  :Dai?:

  :I’m here.: He pulls me carefully from the coral and takes me in a lifeguard hold. Then the current grabs us. Once again I’m racing through the dark. But now Dai’s with me.

  :That was brilliant,: I say crossly. :Now you’re getting swept away, too.:

  :Not for long. I’ve got help. After they surface to breathe, Ton and Densil will take turns towing us to the surface.:

  :Good plan,: I say and relax into Dai’s arms. It’s nice to let someone else worry about smashing into rocks and corals. I doze or lose consciousness for a while. When I open my eyes again, we’re back in the Sunlit Zone. Dai holds me with one arm and grips Ton’s dorsal with the other. The big dolphin pumps his tail through the water in powerful strokes as he tows us toward the surface. I turn my head to study Dai’s profile.

  :It’s just not fair,: I announce.

  :Hey, you’re back again. What’s not fair?: There’s humor along with relief in his mental voice.

  :That you’re ten times better looking than me.: I reach up and cup his cheek. Startled, he glances at me. Then he closes his eyes, as if he’s savoring the moment. I forget how rarely Dai gets touched, or was hugged growing up in his parents’ research ships and laboratories.

  :I do really like you, but you can be such a jerk sometimes,: I say and drop my hand.

  :I am a jerk. I’m also a danger to you and everyone around me, but I’m working on it.:

  :You’re not a danger to everyone around you. Right now you’re saving my life, again.: The indignation I feel burns away some of the cold fog clogging my brain.

  :Nere, you have no idea how close I come to losing it every time I’m angry. Sometimes I think I won’t ever be able to change. There are just too many shark genes in me.:

  :Of course you can change, and you have changed. You’re already much easier to be around than you were when I first met you. You were an angry, mega-jerk back then.:

  :I still get furious sometimes, and I’m afraid I’ll tear someone apart. I’m more like Whitey than you realize.:

  If I weren’t so cold already, I’d shiver. I’ll never forget the cold, brutal boy who killed Mako and tried to kill me too. I can still see his cool gray eyes and his expressionless face.

  :I promise you’re nothing like Whitey.:

  Dai doesn’t reply for so long, I wonder if he heard what I said. I fight the fog and the sleepiness coming back to claim me.

  :I wish you were right,: he says so softly that I almost can’t hear him, :but Whitey’s my half brother.:

  I try to force my eyes open again. I want to tell Dai that he has to be wrong, but I’m too frightened of the ring of truth in his words. So I choose the cowardly way out and let the fog take me.

  Sometime later I’m aware of gentle hands lifting me from the water and Dai shouting at my father. I hope they’re not arguing about me, and I hope someday I’ll feel warm again. Gradually, delicious warmth spreads throughout my limbs. They must have plugged my wet suit into another heating pack. Then I’m back in the sea and speeding along, strapped to a tow, the dolphins spiraling around me.

  :we are with you. you are safe now,: Mariah and my dolphin friends tell me again and again.

  Warmed by their concern, I slip back into a sound slumber.

  chapter eight

  When I open my eyes, I’m lying in a hammock in sickbay in a private area surrounded by white cloth partitions. I’m not cold anymore, but my head hurts and my thigh and upper right arm burn. An IV and a sensor patch are connected to my left arm. As I lean forward to peer at my leg, Tobin swims through a gap in the partitions.

  :Look who’s on sick duty.: I say, managing to smile.

  :Look who landed in sickbay, again,: he scolds.

  :Hey, you were a patient, too, the last time I was in here.: As we were escaping Atlantea, Wasp stung Tobin with the deadly sea wasp tentacles on her fingers and Whitey winged me with a spear dart. The moment I think of Whitey, I remember Dai telling me that he and Whitey are half brothers. I shove that awful idea to the back of my mind, for now.

  :Yeah, but I haven’t been back as a patient,: Tobin is saying, :and here you are again with some serious healing to do.
How do you feel?:

  I wince as I lie back in my hammock. :Like I got mashed against the bottom by a giant wave.:

  :That’s pretty much what the current did when it rolled you along that wall. You have contusions all over your body, and we had to soak some nasty sea urchin spines out of your leg and arm. Your head took a hard hit, too. Even though your thermal seasuit was shredded, it did protect you from coral cuts.:

  :So, nothing’s broken or permanently damaged?:

  :Nope. Looks like you’re going to live to train many more dolphins.:

  :That’s good news,: I say, trying to match his light tone, but because he’s Tobin and he’s watching me so steadily in that understanding way he has, I admit the truth. :I-I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.:

  :It must have been terrifying, being swept along through the dark like that.: Tobin’s eyes warm with sympathy.

  :It was as scary as anything we faced at Atlantea, and I never thought I’d say that.:

  :It’s a good thing the dolphins and Dai found you when they did. Your heartrate was down in the forties and your blood pressure was scary low when Rohan treated you out on the trawler. Speaking of Dai, he said he’d shoot me with his spear gun if I didn’t let him know the second you woke up. I almost think he meant it.:

  :Can I have something for my head before you tell him that I’m awake?:

  Tobin glances at my chart. :Yeah, you can.: He leaves and returns shortly with a syringe of some drug he adds to my IV. Almost at once, the pain in my head eases and I feel kind of floaty.

  :That’s better,: I say with relief.

  :I’m glad,: he replies. :I’ll let Dai know you’re awake, but here’s a heads-up that he’s been acting strange ever since he got back from rescuing you.:

  :Dai always acts a little strange.:

  :Well, even by his standards, he’s been weird and withdrawn. He has good shields, but he’s still leaking worry and anger all over the place.:

  A few minutes later Dai appears at the entry to my curtained area of sickbay.