Far From The Sea We Know

by Frank Sheldon

  “That’s not the way I would put it,” Chiffrey said. “This clearance will allow me to tell you all we know. They accepted that as justifiable considering the threat.”

  “Threat?” Penny said. “They have problems over there, but surely they’re in no danger.”

  “Let’s see,” Chiffrey said. “Two Navy ships, top of the line, rendered helpless, and nobody can begin to explain how. Or why. Many would consider that an act of war. If I had not talked them out of it, by the way, they would have quarantined your ship, gotten you out of the way, and taken over. I need your help, you need my help. I know you want to discover what is really going on with the whales just as much as we do.”

  “Help doing what?”

  “For starters, Captain, we want to know where the whales went. What force disabled these ships? And, especially, why?”

  He scratched his ear, looked up to the sun, chuckled. “And I guess we’ve all become believers in purple whales. Sorry for ever doubting Matthew. Where is he, anyway?”

  “Brooding on his redemption somewhere,” Penny said.

  “Well, he earned it.”

  “What else?” she said.

  “How about the state of the people here? Ripler’s had a total meltdown. And the others. Have you seen the cameraman lately? That kid’s spontaneous recovery seems like a miracle. I wouldn’t have believed it possible. Happy as a clam at high tide now, but I got to wonder. Maybe his detour through cloud cuckoo land is not a real recovery.”

  “Getting a little paranoid?” Penny said.

  “Something out of the ordinary is going on here, and you both know it as well as I do. I just spoke with Dirk and Lorraine Hart. They’re planning to get married when they get back on shore! They’ve known each other a few hours, and they’re getting married? Just passed them, and they were mooning over each other like lovesick teenagers. And the stuff they were saying! If I ever start spouting babble like that, please stab me with a fork. And more of the like going on all over this ship. It’s certainly not just stress. Some unknown agent affected your people.” He glanced at Penny. “Or at least most of them. You put that together with the ability to render warships useless and, yes, we have a problem.”

  Chiffrey was pacing back and forth as he spoke, but in spite of his concern, he seemed oddly happy.

  “Fortunately, we finally have physical evidence: two pairs of propellers sheared right off. Not to mention the whale’s transceiver sprouting on the deck of the bridge like a mushroom. No, let’s do mention that.”

  “It’s not a plant.”

  Chiffrey smiled at the Captain’s comment.

  “Who knows, but that thing has sent down roots and they’re still growing. I saw them move! Anything else to add to the long list of questions without answers?”

  “That’s plenty for now.” Andrew replied. “If we help you, then what?”

  “At this point, we can’t even be sure what we’re looking for,” Chiffrey said. “Whatever way we believed the world worked is now in tatters. So how can I possibly say?”

  He had his hand on the railing and seemed to be trying to wear away the paint with his thumb. “We need to work together, and you have my promise that I will do everything I can to see that this comes out right for all of us.”

  Chiffrey looked toward the drifting cruiser and then to the Captain. “What about it?”

  “I’ll have to ask for volunteers.”

  “We can take back anyone who wants out,” Chiffrey said. “Escort them all the way to the safety of their homes, if requested.” He looked at Penny.

  “I’m in,” she said, “but I want to make clear that I have serious misgivings about your agenda, and I’m remaining in spite of them.”

  “Or maybe because of them,” Chiffrey said, giving one of his annoying winks.

  “You’ve got your ‘yes,’ Lieutenant,” Andrew said. “Leave it at that.”

  “Yes, sir. Looking forward to working together.” He held out his hand and the Captain met it halfway with his own. “I’ll set it up, then. Should be fun operating as a team, finally.” He gave Penny a quick nod and walked away.

  Andrew turned to Penny, smiling. “Take some down time. Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.”

  “Is there any other kind?”

  She kept her gaze on Chiffrey as he strolled away. “Can we really trust him?”

  “Up to a point,” Andrew said. “But his own mission will always come first.”

  “You told us when he first arrived that he wasn’t just a troubleshooter for Air Force radar glitches. He seems to have clout. What do you think of the deal?”

  “The terms he offered are as fair as we’ll get. We either take this berth and ship with him or get left behind.”

  “You never believed him, did you? Ripler, I mean.”

  “I had the advantage of knowing his words were false. Don’t blame the crew for taking him seriously. Jack believed what he was saying.”

  “He was persuasive,” Penny said, “but did you see his eyes after the whales vanished?”

  Andrew nodded sadly, then squinted through his binoculars toward the south. “They got here fast enough. Tugboats, another salvage vessel.”

  “I never liked Ripler,” she said, “but I didn’t realize he was so fragile.”

  Andrew put the binoculars down and scanned the entire horizon before speaking. “Jack’s fallen right off the edge of his little world. I’ve seen it before, and you know what? People can forget they’re insane. With enough time. Happens everyday.” He looked at the ships again. “I’m due on the bridge.

  CHAPTER 26

  Dawn was just breaking when Penny walked out on deck. It was still cool from the night, but the new day’s sun was already bringing a little warmth to her skin. The weather was as perfect as it could be. No rain. Sun with some clouds. A mild, but constant, breeze easily earned her gratitude. She glanced up at Andrew behind the wheel on the bridge and gave him a quick wave. Things were returning to normal.

  But not really. Things would never be normal again. Normal was gone and wasn’t ever coming back.

  Another day and a night had passed since Penny’s meeting with Andrew. Since then, a frigate had appeared yesterday and was shadowing them on their port side. The two disabled Navy ships still floated like bathtub toys to their port. For some reason, the seagoing tugboats were just standing by.

  After searching around, she found Matthew on the fantail, gazing at the Valentina’s wake. She walked up slowly and took a place by his side at the rail, but not too close.

  “Must be driving them mad,” she said, grinning as she looked over at him. “Their propellers just falling off like that.”

  Matthew didn’t return the smile, didn’t say anything. He had become almost unwilling to speak, preferring long looks of knowingness. It was as if he had simply packed his bags and moved up to some lofty peak of self-containment. In the aftermath of the whales disappearing, and all his disbelievers being laid low, he had fallen into the role of vindicated prophet as if into the arms of a true lover.

  “Quite a regatta out there today,” she said, trying again. “What’s taking them so long to tow those ships?”

  He shifted his posture a little and mumbled, “Soon, now.”

  At least he’s starting to talk, she thought. For some reason, she remembered how he had gone into a kind of daze when he walked into the bar after the floatplane dropped them off on their trip up.

  “Matthew? Do you remember what Normy said to you?”

  “Who?”

  “The guy in Abercrombie. Normy. He said something to you and you just froze up and started to sweat and turned pale as a ghost. Remember that? Something about bones?” He just looked at her with the same vaguely sublime face.

  “Matthew? You’re creeping me out. Hellooo…?”

  His head quivered for a moment, and he suddenly seemed to see her as he said. “Why are you goading me? Because I stayed in the men’s quarters last night?”

&nbs
p; “You can sleep where you want. I made that clear.”

  “Some of the crew seemed to need to talk. About what happened to them.”

  “Well, how compassionate of you, then.”

  He didn’t strike at the lure, saying only, “I hope you had a good evening.”

  “Slept like a baby. Nice to stretch out.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well,” he said, “the guy next to me smelled like a fresh-turned compost heap. Is there anything I could do to win a place back, if not in your bunk, at least in your cabin? The floor would be fine.”

  She looked at him, kept looking, and at last his face broke into a true smile. She pounded his arm. “Damn you! Okay, you’re back in, but you could use a shower yourself, you toad. I have to tell you something. Chiffrey was picked up by a launch from the frigate after you and your buddies turned in last night. About three in the morning.”

  “You were still up?”

  “I woke, couldn’t get back to sleep. Found out this morning that Chiffrey left no word of when he would return. Well?”

  “Wait and see.”

  “And stare at all the pretty waves, you mean?”

  “Something changed for me, Penny. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to put it into words. It needs time, and I need time. Part of me is here and part of me is…looking on.”

  “You need guy space. Got it.”

  He was about to protest, but then seemed relieved. She let him off the hook, after all.

  Most of the crew would soon be filing into C-lab for a meeting, but she wasn’t going and she wasn’t surprised that Matthew had also decided to stay away. She looked at him again, his hair rustling in the breeze. He no longer stared at the waves, but had produced a set of nail clippers from somewhere and was busy with an impromptu manicure, of all things.

  “Keeping up personal hygiene, good,” she said. He suddenly seemed completely absorbed in his clipping, as if he were working on his definitive masterpiece, and didn’t respond. She persisted. “Why has this happened to everybody? And you?”

  “I don’t know,” he answered, but the knowing look on his face was exasperating. “Everything is the same, yet somehow nothing is the same and never will be again.”

  “How fine and wise.”

  “I will be able to say it better one day.”

  “Listen, you’ve been holier-than-thou ever since the whales disappeared, and the Navy was disabled. I was watching people around you yesterday. They treated you with such deference, and why? Because all along you were right. I know it’s a relief to finally have everyone see that you’re not crazy, but is this going to be your new career?”

  “You were going to give me a break.”

  “I never promised.”

  “No, I guess you didn’t.”

  She waited, but he didn’t follow through, so she said, “I’ve always been straight with you. That’s better than bullshit with sugar on top, isn’t it?”

  “I’d just like the rest of you.”

  “So, you want it all, do you? No one gets everything.”

  He seemed to look inward for a moment and said, “Then I must make everything of what I get.”

  “Skip the platitudes. Where are you now with this? Explain it to me.”

  “Ever since the incident, I look at people, I see them, I hear them. I mean, really see and hear them. And everything around them as well. The ship, it’s almost as if it is alive. I feel right with everybody. Things may be the same outside, but I feel so connected in a way that is just…” He struggled for words and looked almost sad. “…just the way things were always meant to be.”

  “If that includes me, I’m not feeling it back.”

  “I know,” he said and then looked truly sad for a moment.

  “Forget it,” she said. “You still haven’t told me why all this now?”

  “I’m putting it as simply as I can.”

  “No need to dumb it down.”

  “It’s hard to put into words. I just have this certainty that I am where I am meant to be. As if everything is part of a play, the one play, and I just play my part. All is exactly as it should be, and I’m free. It’s a dance, and I dance.”

  “Then I suggest you widen your repertoire. You’ve been about as lively as a garden ornament.”

  “Please drop the cynicism, at least for a while.”

  “Oh, so all is just as it should be except me.”

  “No! Not at all, it’s just that I wish you…Just listen to me, please. I am where I am meant to be, and so are you!” He paused and added, “With me, us together…”

  She had been looking at the newly arrived ships when he said this, but she turned and held his glance for a moment, looked for even a trace of condescension. Just one flicker would have been enough, but he looked back at her with no more guile than a child lost in the forest.

  “All right,” she said. “But aren’t you concerned at all? I mean, of all this, everything we seem to have set loose?”

  “We didn’t set it loose.”

  “Okay, it just happened to us, ‘it’ meaning stuff totally outside the known laws of physics. And I’m even getting used to it. But the way everyone is acting?”

  “Not an act. They’re just becoming themselves.”

  “Really. Aren’t you the least bit skeptical?”

  “Of what needs to be questioned, of course. But if it’s sunny, I don’t doubt the light or the warmth. I don’t need to analyze the sun to feel the sun, to know the sun directly.” He gazed up at the sun, but at least he had his eyes closed. “It’s a relationship now. I feel the sun’s reality and my place with it so immediately.”

  He turned back to her and opened his eyes. “This is the way life is meant to be, that’s what is important. I don’t know why this has all happened now, and I do hope to know, but it would be wrong to make an obsession of trying to find out.”

  “I never suggested we should.”

  “What has happened to us should be embraced, not shunted aside because it’s new and, therefore, a threat.”

  “I’m with you on not denying. It just bothers me that no one is questioning the validity of their experience and the source. I include you. It should be a cause for concern.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Ripler was just as convinced that he was right as you are now. Being convinced beyond all doubt does not make what you believe true. Think about it! All the people out there who just know they’re right, half of them self-righteous creeps who seek to bend the world to their will even if it breaks and do not hesitate to destroy those who do not agree with them. Listen, I don’t really want to go into that now.”

  He didn’t say anything for a moment, then, “Sure. Some other day.”

  “A little unfair, I know, since I brought it up.” She gave him a hug and looked up into his eyes, which somehow seemed darker brown than ever.

  “What do you say we have another look?” She gave a quick glance toward the bridge.

  “The transceiver?”

  “No one but Andrew seems to be there now, the students are enjoying their group grope, so now’s as good a time as any.”

  His answer was barely audible. “Maybe another time. I was going to kind of just sit for a while.”

  “Sit? Like meditate or something?”

  “I just sit and let everything stop for a while. My thoughts.”

  “Then enjoy your holiday. I’ll see you later.” She smiled, but stalked off a little annoyed. No matter, she thought. Let him be, let him have some time to find his footing. Let him see for himself if what he believes he’s found is real.

  As she entered the bridge, Andrew gave her a nod and said, “Morning. Come to visit me or our new addition?”

  “Both,” she said.

  A new array of equipment had been installed, the wires cinched together with cable ties in an attempt to make it neat, but it was still clearly a jury rig. Most of it was gathered around the transceiver on the flo
or.

  “Emory adapted a stereo microscope and rigged it to get a closer look,” Andrew said. “Set it up with video, but right now only hooked into the monitor down in C-lab. Will be spliced into the monitors here after the meeting. That black box next to the transceiver can detect electrical fields in living organisms. Didn’t have much else that would be of use.”

  “Do you think this meeting the crew is having is wise?” she asked.

  Andrew gave a slight nod. “They seem to be coming back together. If a meeting helps, good enough reason.” He handed her a large magnifying glass. “Have a look.”

  She took the magnifier, knelt down, and brought the glass up to see. What looked like roots in all kinds of colors were emanating from the transceiver, growing right before her eyes. How could that possibly be?

  “Penetrating steel deck plates,” he said. “Feel the heat?”

  She put her hand down. The deck felt just as hard as always, but unaccountably warm. She said, “At the rate they are extending, you would have to say this was more like animal movement than plant growth.”

  “May not be plant or animal,” he said.

  “Then what? Some kind of quasi-life? I’ve never heard of anything that can grow through steel. More to the point, damn it, how could a transceiver send out roots?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “They’re beautiful,” she said, “the colors, the way they weave in and out like some super fine tapestry, but many dangerous things use bright displays of color as warning signs.”

  She didn’t touch the roots but ran her hand along the cables from the microscope. They jacked in to an AV junction box underneath the bridge console along with other instruments.

  “I hope they’re backing up everything they’re recording,” she said, “because they may never get another chance.”

  “Malcolm and Emory? Before we sailed, they put in enough storage to hold the Library of Congress.”

  She got to her feet. “This is ten levels beyond incredible. We should be staggering around with our minds blown.”

  “Some are,” he said, pursing his lips as he glanced at the old brass compass in its gimbals. She knew he had never done much in the way of analyzing data and had sometimes been faulted for it. Yet she had always trusted Andrew’s intuitions and pure observational skills more than anyone else’s, even her father’s. And Martin would be the first to say the same.