Far From The Sea We Know

by Frank Sheldon

“Maybe, but we’re certainly not going to cut into it to find out.”

  “Of course. There’ll be time for a more thorough investigation when we reach port.”

  “We’re not heading back yet,” she said.

  “No, but eventually we will be. Still, you’re right. With this new breathing space, I’m sure you realized that we have another chance of finding Matthew.”

  “Waiting for thanks?”

  “Sugar, I believe I just got all the thanks I’m going to get today.”

  CHAPTER 55

  The shortest night of the year. Midsummer’s Eve. The sun was finally gone, the sunset faded down to an ember, yet the sky still provided a subtle light. The blue hour. Dark, yet strangely warm.

  Penny stood at the railing a moment, looking out, a welcome breeze sweeping the edge of the trouble from her thoughts. The movement of dark waves could be seen from the few whitecaps birthed by the gentle sea. Unhurried swells rolled up as if bearing some portentous message, yet remained silent in the end, their place soon taken by others, an unending procession of false promise.

  Over the last few days, she had kept as close as she could to the tank, signing up for every available shift. The late night to early morning hours were her first choice. Since her first encounter with the thing they had pulled from the sea, she had felt a special relationship with it. Yet the truth was, she was no further than anyone else in making sense of what it was or why it was here.

  It was time now for her watch at the tank, but she wandered over with little remaining energy, the last of her initial enthusiasm finally gone. When she got there, she stood at the bottom of the steps for a while, staring up at the starry fields, now easier to see from within the shade of tarps they had installed around the tank. To the north, a few small clouds moved across the constellation of Cassiopeia like phantom hares.

  Becka was alone up on the observation platform, taking readings. Everyone on board seemed to be losing at least some interest in what was proving to be a boring guest. Few volunteered for the late-night shifts. Penny climbed the steps slowly and stood at the tank’s edge, arms folded in front of her.

  “Look at it,” Becka said. “Floating like a fat matzoh ball in my aunt’s thin soup.”

  Penny didn’t reply.

  “You okay?” Becka asked.

  “I’m fine, just tired. Anything new?”

  “The remote EEG is getting nothing. Surprising. Only this old stethoscope works. Still that unchanging double heartbeat, assuming that’s what it is, which I’m beginning to doubt. I have something I’d like to check in the lab. You want to start now?”

  “Go ahead if you’re bored.”

  “I’m never bored,” Becka said. “But you look a little…”

  “How’s your lieutenant?”

  “He’s not my lieutenant. Sure, we’ve been spending some time together, so what? I don’t agree with him on many things, but he has a different load to haul, so I try to see his perspective. It doesn’t have to be us against him.”

  “Against them, you mean. Who he represents.”

  “You know, why don’t you try another routine besides jab, jab, punch. Find something else. Is it just the letdown after all the action and not finding…” Becka let the words trail off. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t fair.”

  Penny didn’t want to say anything but did anyway. “I suppose I asked for it.”

  “We’re too much alike is the problem,” Becka said. She laughed softly and gestured toward the tank. “You might have better luck with it if you’d—”

  “I don’t expect or want ‘better luck.’ We’ve missed something important, and I know it’s right there staring at us.”

  “You used to say we had to be patient.”

  “This isn’t the same.” Penny glanced at the mass floating in the tank, light from Becka’s instruments gleaming off its glassy surface like phantom fireflies. “It’s here for a reason, and we’re too thick to get it.”

  “Great observation.”

  “No need to humor me.”

  “And no need to play the hard bitch all the time,” Becka said rising briefly like a cobra, before softening again. “That was my old job, by the way.”

  Penny looked at Becka.

  “And I earned the title, believe it to me,” Becka said laughing at her word mangle then added, “Like you!” She laughed again and half sang, “Me and my shadow…”

  The old song was familiar to Penny. Her mother used to sing it to lull her to sleep, especially during the summer when the sun “stayed up” so late.

  Becka had her eyes closed now and was singing louder.

  “…and not another soul to tell our troubles to…” She stopped. “Two’s a crowd tonight, I see.”

  Penny nodded. “No, it was nice to hear, It’s just I’d like a little time alone.”

  Becka put down her clipboard and her hand came gently to rest on Penny’s shoulder.

  Penny didn’t look up, just said, “The lab, something you had to check, remember?”

  Becka gave her a hug. “Too much alike…”

  It felt good. Penny surrendered herself to it.

  “You ever need someone to talk to,” Becka said, “or anything…okay?”

  “Sure.”

  Becka climbed down and darted away without another word.

  Penny kneeled on the observation platform and put her hand in the water and swirled it around.

  “Why don’t you…”

  The pain in her heart was suddenly stupefying, a sour lump draining all her energy, leaving her feeling dense and heavy. She hated this feeling more than anything else. The thing in the tank could be the link to Matthew she was looking for, but it might as well be made of rubber.

  “Hey, if I wanted this kind of excitement, I could go watch the bilge pumps.” She couldn’t help speaking to it. “What are you, just another joke?” The sound of her voice grated in her own ears.

  An image of Matthew suddenly came, how he had looked when she slapped him during their last fight, and how quickly the anger had fled to leave nothing behind but the two of them locked in an embrace that submerged their individuality in an ocean of bliss. Was there any real chance she would ever see him again? Like crows to road kill, doubts crept closer to her heart. She let her head fall into her hands and rested on the tank’s edge.

  “Dammit.”

  The tears fell one by one into the water, the drops hitting, feeble ripples circling out to nowhere in the void of reflected darkness. A few stars mirrored back, dancing gaily in the wavelets as if to mock her…

  I fall into eyes like dark pools in the deepest cave. Flecks of gold swirl like tiny fish in and out of space. A voice, a whisper croons softly inside me. Sounds from before the birth flow into bone and breath and, without thinking, over the edge, I am Here, the forgotten place, the unremembered home. Words arrive as harmonies shape, then free of any thought, pure as the taste of water cupped in a hand, I circle slowly, carried up in a spiraling gyre, a drifting embrace…

  The form floating in the holding tank had partly opened and half enveloped Penny. Without warning it now submerged to the bottom of the tank, still holding her. She did not struggle or resist. There they remained until, after time uncounted, they floated back up and broke the surface. She let her breath out, and another fled in. It felt as if the outer part of the form was melting like hot taffy. Inside was a green translucent mass held in place by a creamy membrane. Something deep inside it, like a head, began turning weakly back and forth. Eyes, dark as night, gazed out but not at her.

  “Penny, I need you to pull your head down and get as far out of the way as you can. Please.”

  Elbows resting square against the tank, and with a grim look on his face, Lieutenant Chiffrey half-kneeled on the observation platform, gripping a service revolver. It was aimed directly at the creature within the form.

  “No, don’t shoot!” she could only whisper, her voice somehow gone.

  Others were running up and a few cl
imbed onto the observation platform, including Andrew, who slowly raised a hand to rest on top of Chiffrey’s weapon. Though there was now a slight tremor in his hands, Chiffrey kept the gun pointed.

  Penny had come free from the formless mass, but remained in front to shield it from Chiffrey as best she could. She turned as the membrane suddenly split down the middle, and dark undulating folds within began to move apart until a thick jelly, green as chlorophyll, flowed around and over it, seemingly with a life of its own. Her dream came back to her, the terrible thing coming out of the sea, and she was afraid, but nonetheless brought her arm up toward it. Instantly a hand sprang out and grasped hers and Matthew Amati, naked, alive, and without a hair on his body, stepped out into the warm midsummer night air.

  CHAPTER 56

  Matthew’s lungs filled as if he was taking his first breath. Penny swam to him and he fell into her arms. No one said a word. It was as quiet as it could ever get on a ship at sea.

  She turned and saw the crew’s faces, each lit up with a strange mix of horror and happiness. All but Andrew’s. He didn’t look surprised at all, and he was the only one who spoke. “The sea doesn’t often give back what she takes.”

  “I need a moment with Matthew,” she said to everyone. “Please.”

  Yet no one moved, and there was no answer until Chiffrey, who like the others had been stunned into silence, said, “What the damn hell just happened?” He brought up his free hand and ran it through his hair a few times as if to comb out the answer out.

  Andrew turned to address everyone.

  “Give them their moment,” He glanced at Chiffrey and said, “Let’s go.” Then he stepped down from the platform and walked away, setting the example, and the rest soon followed. Drifting off in different directions, they all looked back at least once, except Chiffrey. He left last, staring straight ahead.

  About a half hour later, Becka appeared on the observation platform of the tank with some blankets. “I thought you might be cold. If there is anything…”

  “You can get the others now. Leave the blankets. Thanks.”

  With a long glance at them, Becka nodded and left. Penny and Matthew were still in the tank. He was looking around as if seeing everything for the first time, especially the stars above them. He gazed up, completely transfixed, and then suddenly looked back at her.

  “I’m not leaving,” she said, just mouthing the words, knowing he would understand. He pointed to the blankets and, even though they were still in the water, she draped the largest one around his head and shoulders. It was dark gray, and he gathered it around himself like a shroud.

  In twos and threes, the others were returning. Chiffrey, satphone in hand, went up on the observation platform, while most of the others simply gathered around the rim of the tank, where they could just see in. Becka, kneeling next to Chiffrey on the platform, had brought some bottles of water. Matthew smiled and took one, drinking it down as if he would never see another.

  “Good to have you back,” Chiffrey said, as he cautiously lowered himself onto one knee. “You got one hell of a haircut. Not a hair left, and not a good look for you really.” Matthew didn’t say anything and Chiffrey’s reliable smile was failing when he began again. “Ah, sorry about the gun, didn’t know it was you. It is you, right?” He looked around the tank. “What happened to the…whatever it was you were in. Damn it, I just don’t see how you could be inside that thing and still…” His face suddenly went as white as a peeled egg.

  Though he was staring at something behind Penny, the body has its own perceptions and the hairs on the back of her neck began tingling. Everyone was suddenly facing west, but not so much to see what was there as being seen by what was there. Even before she turned, she knew. It was holding itself upright amongst the swells, motionless and now as white as carved ivory. She had no doubt. It was Matthew’s whale.

  As she peered into the one eye facing them, it was as if she were looking back in some impossible way upon herself. All secrets seemed sundered forever and time collapsed in defeat. Then words came, at first only faintly, but the voice from the whale got louder and louder, both inside and outside, and her heart began to sync with some unheard rhythm. Suddenly, a surge of power from the whale brought her into the absolute present and the force of its voice pushed her back like an enormous hand.

  “MOOOVVVE AWAAAYYYYYY!”

  The whale slid back under the surface and was gone. All the gulls and seabirds that had been following them for days exploded as one out of the dark water. They took to the skies, all flying east under the light of the rising moon, every feather as distinct as the fingers of the hand she held out to them. The sea began to luminesce, whether from phosphorescent plankton or something else bubbling up from below she could not say. In every direction it extended, so bright the deck lights were soon outshone.

  Emory yelled down from the bridge.

  “Captain! We got it on the scope again. The dome. It’s moving!”

  “Which way?”

  “Up! Right under us!”

  Andrew came to life and vaulted up the steps to the bridge, shouting. “All ahead full! Follow the birds!” He half-turned on the steps toward those on deck. “Emergency stations! Now!” The spell broken, everyone scattered, even Chiffrey.

  Penny remained with Matthew in the holding tank. Wavelets arising from the Valentina’s sudden acceleration lapped against the metal tank as if upon the shores of a tiny sea. Matthew floated upright in the middle, almost unmoving, as time again expanded and stretched out in every instant until all the action on the ship had receded into a far and distant fury. In that moment, she dropped into his arms as if into a waiting net, eager to be caught.

  “I must…go,” he said.

  “I know.”

  A tear distinguished itself from the water on his face and slid down his cheek. He closed his lashless eyes and strained to find a way to speak. “You brought me back, and now to begin…I must go. There will be…a return to…”

  “Yes, yes, I know, I really do, but don’t let me forget!”

  After an embrace that seemed to last forever, he let his arms fall to his side and simply stepped back. It was as if he became a door that opened briefly.

  “Matthew, wait!” she couldn’t help crying at the last instant as that door began to close in upon itself.

  His eyes, now burning like molten gold looked back. She held out her hand as the space in front of her began to dance with a hue unbound by the limits of light and could only watch as he slipped away to a sea we do not know.

  CHAPTER 57

  By the time Andrew reached the bridge, the engines had already rumbled up to peak speed. Penny climbed out of the tank and looked back to see the waters behind them roiled into a raging froth by the propellers as they pulled away. Soon the sea in the area they had just left began to mound up as if some new continent was rising from its depths. Water roared down from the top of the emerging dome like a hundred Niagaras. As waves like rolling mountains surged toward them, Andrew brought the Valentina around to meet them head on. She knew why. They’d pitchpole if they tried to outrun them.

  Chiffrey was half-crawling his way to the foredeck, satphone still in hand. Everyone else was clinging to whatever was nearest. In silent awe, they rode to the peak of the first wave as if in the hand of a god, then dropped like a high diver in slow motion. It felt like they might just plow through the sea below them, but they were soon carried up the next crest like a child in a swing, their weight first increasing with the acceleration, then almost disappearing as they fell again into the trough.

  The surface of the huge rounded mass burned with a cold fire. Lightning struck the dome, and leapt back above to clouds tinged with a pulsating green. Thunder crashed, but instead of rain falling, a phosphorescent glow blushed out along the tips of the waves all the way to the ship and up the masts. The whole sky took on a magenta cast, and an unexpected fragrance wafted through the air. Violets.

  “My dream,” Malcolm said,
a satisfied smile washing over his face. “It’s my dream for real….”

  The dome kept rising, widening out as if it would never stop until its sides abruptly curved under to reveal a slightly convex bottom festooned with crystalline structures in the center. Like titanic signal lights, they flashed in alternating hues of green and blue in a pattern just beyond Penny’s incomprehension. As it rose above the waves, water still poured off it in torrents, but the seas were beginning to calm. The largest waves had passed, and Andrew had once again brought the Valentina through intact.

  “We are not under attack,” Penny heard Chiffrey yell into his satphone as the wind brought his voice to her ears. He cupped his hand around the mouthpiece. “Do you copy? Not under attack. Do you copy?” She raced past him down to the bow.

  The dome made its way up so slowly she could barely tell it was moving. It hummed like a child’s top, and the deck beneath her feet vibrated in sympathetic resonance. A rosy hue played about the waves and on the Valentina’s mastheads. Though the time was near midnight, light from the luminescent waters shone bright as day. The seas had become relatively calm. Everyone was standing now, quietly watching as the dome floated up. When it was far above them, but still as easy to see as a second moon, it seemed to move away in every direction at once, and the sky all around it fell apart like a heat mirage. A brief instant of absolute silence fell over them all. Then came a slow boom, like the deepest thunder ever heard, that reverberated on and on. A torrent of silvery hailstones fell straight down into the sea in front of them then stopped as quickly as it had begun.

  The sky, left empty, now seemed a poorer place.

  The engines powered up slightly. Andrew was taking them closer to where it had emerged.