Far From The Sea We Know

by Frank Sheldon

  Out on the foredeck, Penny glanced up at the bridge. The tall Navy guard still stood behind Emory, who hunched resolutely over the wheel. She sighed as if a life had left her.

  I’ve had enough.

  She wandered into the galley to check the status of the coffee urn. Her father was at the long table nearest the port side alone. She sat down next to him.

  “Dad?”

  “Yes, dear?”

  “They’re going to take the ship, aren’t they?”

  Her father’s face clouded. “Yes, I’m afraid so. Almost certain.”

  “But why? They can crate up everything and haul it away somewhere, can’t they?”

  “Because of the transceiver.”

  “They’re just looking for an excuse. There’s no longer any trace of it.”

  “Well, exactly. That’s why they want the whole ship, to find out if it did anything, and if it is still active.”

  “Chiffrey seemed to believe they wanted to just forget the whole thing and move on.”

  “I’m sure that’s right for many of the parties involved. But not all. And if everyone else declares victory and goes home, it’s convenient for those few who want to delve deeper. And they may even be right to do so, who can say, but taking our ship is the wrong way.” He took a slow sip of tea, long grown cold.

  “Did you tell them this?”

  “Of course, but it’s not the way they work. They don’t want us around, getting in their hair. Not much we can do except protest, which we have and will continue to do.”

  She saw the look hidden in his eyes.

  “Dad, I’m sorry. They’ll take the Bluedrop, too.”

  “Because of the disappearing hatch, if nothing else. Yes. And we’ll carry on.”

  “They’ll have all our records, all our samples, everything in the end, and we’ll have nothing.”

  “Not completely. I think we may still be, if not in the loop, within sight of it now and then. Our Lieutenant Chiffrey is insisting on that. And for the record, he was against them taking the Valentina.”

  “Sure, because he still views us as assets.”

  “That may be part of it but, I rather believe, not all of it.”

  She paused for a moment and in a low voice said, “Dad, I need to get back.”

  “Well then, you’re a mariner after all.”

  She looked at him, puzzled.

  “I sometimes feel the reason all sailors venture out is only so they’ll eventually have a reason to return.”

  He gazed out the galley porthole as the Valentina came about. “You can feel it in the ship already, can’t you? We’re heading home.”

  CHAPTER 64

  “Hello, it’s me,” she said, knocking on Andrew’s cabin door.

  “Come in.”

  He was at his small desk, writing something by hand in a journal. To the side, shelves of teak held a few rows of old books, some with calfskin covers. The picture of his wife, fastened to the wall above the desk, seemed to look down at him. Around her neck was a beautiful string of shells and silver, the same one now hanging above the compass on the bridge.

  “Valentina’s necklace,” she said, indicating the portrait.

  “Someday it will be yours. Promise.”

  “Oh, Andrew, thank you, but I was so happy to find that it wasn’t lost with…that you still had it. And I want to thank you for everything you did and tried to do on this trip. You were the only one I could always count on. Don’t give up.”

  “I won’t, but this is the last ship for me,” he said, his sea-worn smile hiding nothing.

  She could only answer with a deep sigh. He pulled opened a drawer without looking and soon a shot glass of whiskey stood between them.

  “Thanks.” She drank some then poured a little water from a bottle she brought into her hand and splashed it on her face. “Okay. Dad says it will be hard to win, but I don’t see how they can just take your ship.”

  “They have ways.”

  “But you will try to stop them, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “We can make a story out of this. Dad and you are still beloved by many, from the old TV specials. Is there any way I can help?”

  “Rest and gather your strength. We’ll all need it.” He stopped smiling, closed his eyes for a moment. “You helped us…and me, more than you know.”

  “Yeah, well, you for me, too.”

  She couldn’t stop her gaze from wandering up to Valentina’s picture. “I remember the day we named the ship for her. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. As time went by, I grew old, Valentina didn’t, that’s all. She’s never really left me. I keep a place for her, and always will.”

  He glanced at the brass weather clock on the wall. “Got to get up to the bridge.” He stood up and gave her a hug. “To home,” he said, lifting a phantom drink to the rest of hers, and they walked out together.

  The way back home only took a few days, but it dragged for Penny. She avoided people whenever she could, with a single exception: a requested interview by one of the civilian investigators who had come on board. She answered everything, but kept strictly to the external facts, what she had done, what she saw and heard, but nothing about what she thought or felt. Almost as if what she was describing had happened to someone else. And by now it almost seemed as if it had. Yet she would never be the same. The energy wasn’t there to run her old self. And if it ever came back, she would put it in service of something else. Right now she didn’t know what and didn’t care. When the time came, when it mattered, she would. Now she only wanted to head into the silence of deep woods far, far away from the sound of waves.

  CHAPTER 65

  As they pulled up to the pier of the naval base, the frigate that had been chaperoning them started coming around in a slow circle. It was not going to leave until the Valentina was fully in hand.

  Lines were secured and the gangplank extended. Penny stayed on the bridge with Andrew and her father, watching the crew depart in a line. No one they knew was there to meet them, just Navy personnel and a few civilians in government suits. No reporters either. The disinformation machine had been successfully deployed, and nobody knew their whereabouts. It was disheartening. No family, no one.

  Chiffrey had at least agreed that Andrew, as captain, would be the last to go. To add a little dignity, she supposed, to what was essentially the impounding of his ship. Once Andrew was gone, a new crew would come on board. “They’ll take good care of her,” Chiffrey had assured her. “I’ll do anything I can to get her back to you someday. If that’s at all possible.” Hedging as always, yet he almost seemed genuinely concerned.

  She wanted to wait and go down with Andrew, but he insisted she go with her father. The Captain of the Valentina wanted a last moment alone with his ship.

  And now the time had come. They were up on the bridge, Andrew behind the wheel even though they were tied securely to the pier.

  “After this,” her father said to him, “things may never be the same, old friend.”

  Andrew gave the faintest hint of a smile, a small burning coal in the face of a bitter chill, welcome even though it could do no real good.

  “And we have people, too, and they have been busy the last few days,” her father added. “They say it is not completely hopeless. There are options.”

  Andrew remained silent, just nodded his head. The last of the Valentina’s crew had boarded a waiting military bus and it now pulled away toward some debriefing center. No one spoke for a while, but it wasn’t awkward. They knew each other too well. Finally Andrew said, “It’s time. They’re waiting.”

  “All right, then,” her father said. “We’ll see you sometime.”

  “You will.”

  “Why don’t we meet after this?” Penny said. “Go have a drink or something?”

  Andrew looked past them, out toward the canal. “I have something I need to attend to.”

  “Well, perhaps…”

  “Certainly. Anoth
er day.”

  Their bags had already been taken off. Chiffrey’s idea, to simplify things. As Penny went down the gangplank, the occasion seemed to call for a long glance back. Instead, she just kept walking. There was no point in hanging on to what was already gone. The feel of dry land under her feet felt like a quiet room after a long noisy day. She would have liked nothing more than to keep walking for hours, looking for a path into some forgotten woods, except a low thrumming beat that had become as familiar as her own heart’s suddenly reached her ears. The engines of the Valentina were rumbling back to life, sounding as healthy as the day they were forged.

  The ship was already in motion when she turned around, but both fore and aft hawsers were still lashed around massive cleats on the pier. Everyone seemed frozen in place. Chiffrey’s mouth hung open in stunned disbelief. The ship glided through still water, seemingly without effort, but the thick ropes failing to yank tight. Instead, the lines simply glided off the decks and into the water, their cut ends splashing impotently. Mateo’s head popped up from behind the gunwales, wearing a smile like the Cheshire Cat. The Valentina immediately turned out to sea. But this wasn’t the sea. They were far up the Hood Canal. What could Andrew possibly achieve by pulling this now?

  The Navy guards standing by raised their rifles and looked to Chiffrey. He motioned them down and fixed his gaze on the frigate that had been chaperoning the Valentina. It was already altering course to intercept. Chiffrey walked over to Penny and her father. “I’m sorry this had to happen. You know there is nothing I can do but stop him and take him off.” He looked at the departing ship, and the frigate already narrowing the gap. “Not how I hoped this would play out.”

  He hand signaled to some of the guards and said, “We’ll get a radio down here in a minute that can connect to his frequency.” He looked at her father. “I would like you to try to contact him. We don’t want a bad situation to get worse.”

  “I…I will do what I can,” was all her father could say. “Be careful. Please…”

  Chiffrey nodded. “We’ll do it right.”

  The Valentina could make decent headway when she had to, but the frigate was gaining. A couple more minutes and they would pull alongside.

  Penny swiveled around toward Chiffrey. “If he is hurt in any way, I will hold you personally responsible. This never would have happened if—hey, listen to me!”

  But the look on Chiffrey’s face had changed, and she followed his stare. The frigate had slowed and begun to turn, like a leaf eddying in a stream. The Valentina glimmered until it dazzled like a million shards of glass. There was an in-rush of air as the light abruptly faded. Then only a turbulence of waves and chop remained to mark the place where the ship had been. Soon that was gone as well.

  “That damn old rover!” Penny yelled. “He knew!” She stood there and laughed with utter joy.

  The Navy guards had collapsed on the ground. One slowly opened his eyes and smiled as he looked up at Chiffrey. The man got to his feet, cleared his rifle of all ammunition, and removed the magazine. He carefully laid everything out on the grass, took off his boots, and walked away, humming. The others then got up, seemingly fully alert, and stood at attention as if waiting orders. As Chiffrey opened his mouth they all did an about face and marched away double time, perfectly synchronized, except they walked with a high stepping lope as if they were trekking across a savanna somewhere and had been doing so all their lives. They raised their rifles in the air with both hands, pumping them up and down in some strange counter-rhythm.

  Chiffrey took a few breaths. “Well,” he said, “here we go again. I’m almost getting used to this. And at least the question of whether the transceiver was really gone or still active has been answered. That’d be my guess anyway. Nicely done.”

  The frigate continued to slowly turn until it was coasting backwards.

  “Must have lost rudder control as well,” her father said.

  Chiffrey stared up at a security camera for a moment, but shook his head. It wasn’t at the right angle to have recorded the Valentina’s departure. His gaze returned to the Navy guards marching off to the beat of some other drummer. The group was now twice as big and growing as more personnel spontaneously joined in, including the two remaining government men.

  “Got to see what I can do to pick up the pieces and see if anyone is not under the spell around here.” He started to go, but stopped and turned back to them. “Do I seem the same to you? I don’t feel the same at all, and yet I can’t tell one thing different. Never mind. I’d leave quickly before they reboot if I were you. Enjoy your return home. Catch up with you later.” He gave Penny a wink and ambled away.

  “Advice we should perhaps take,” her father said. He closed his eyes as if trying to bring some memory back. “The way Andrew’s been lately…a few words, an odd phrase…I had a feeling, but I didn’t expect anything like this. And where on earth is he now?”

  “In the place he wanted to be more than any other,” she said. “At least, that is my hope.”

  “If you’re right,” her father said, gazing out to the last known location of the Valentina, “he’s earned it, if ever anyone has, no bones about it.”

  Dice. Rolling the bones. Bones of the sea…

  An image finally burned its way through from the back of her mind, an image of shells, tiny and white, turning slowly, somehow connecting all the way through their lives on an endless string. “Dad, didn’t you once say that shells were the bones of the sea?”

  He nodded. “Andrew told me that once. It’s true.” He stared at her and began to look sleepy.

  “Dad! Valentina’s necklace was hanging above the compass on the bridge. Some silver, but mostly shells. Bones of the sea.”

  Her father rubbed his face with both hands and looked at her as if waiting for something else.

  “I can’t explain it,” she continued. “I really can’t, but I believe Andrew somehow made a connection to the transceiver through Valentina’s necklace on the bridge. A direct connection.”

  Her father still looked bewildered, but made an effort to speak. “The altered transceiver…you mean was some sort of interface? It sounds like magic.”

  “A way to access the same forces we have all witnessed, which did seem like magic, but it wasn’t. Just beyond human ken. And it needed something else.”

  “Ah, the necklace, I see, except of course, I don’t.”

  “Think about Andrew’s rapport with sea mammals, you know it was more than just empathy, it was almost communion.”

  “And he has a deep rapport with his ship as well. The Valentina. Still do not really understand, but…”

  The look of youthful illumination that had briefly played on his face faded to the sad joy of one who’s seen the consequences of a life played at the edge. His voice now lower, he added, “And he had…has an even deeper connection to the one whose name his ship bore. Valentina, his wife. Lost to the sea with the best. The necklace, yes, a way to…”

  He let out a heavy sigh.

  “I don’t know, really. It’s completely mad, yet it fits.” He nodded his head for a while and added, “And perhaps someday, in this world where everything we thought we knew has been turned upside down and given a good shake, I will know how it fits.”

  Her father looked across the now placid waters and smiled. “A fair wind, old friend.”

  Then he shrugged his shoulders. “We’d best leave while we can. While it seems our Lieutenant has realized that justice sometimes flies higher than the law, I doubt if everyone here will be so inclined when they come back to their senses.”

  No one stopped them on their way out.

  CHAPTER 66

  Two days after Penny and her father returned to her parents’ home, Chiffrey showed up, his demeanor noticeably subdued, the goofy humor all but gone. Perhaps because he was not alone. Another man in civilian dress had hovered just behind him like a shadow. Penny recognized the man as one of the investigators who had boarded the Valentin
a while they were still at sea. He was neither tall nor short, had thinning blonde hair, rather nondescript in almost every way. The exception was his pale gray eyes. They crouched half closed behind steel-rimmed glasses and never seemed to blink.

  Chiffrey acted almost as if he had never met her or her father before and was formal except for one moment when he said, “We just want to ask you a few things about your last day on the Valentina. If you’re not ready now, they’ll send someone else later.” She understood the implication. Her father must have, too, given the way he looked her way and nodded consent.

  The civilian did nothing at first but watch and listen, while Chiffrey seemed to do a thorough job debriefing her father and her about “the last known day” of the Valentina’s whereabouts. Yet without avoiding anything, Chiffrey subtly framed his questions so they were able to supply answers that, though honest, contributed little more to what was probably already known. They were able to maintain the impression that they were essentially all in the same situation as far as having the facts, that is, that they were as astonished and in the dark as anyone else. As to the matter of Matthew’s disappearance, she was able to say that she had a hard time remembering it and “must have been in some kind of state,” but was now recovered. Since the Navy had had more than a few of its own in that condition, she felt her answer was acceptable. Chiffrey asked her if she knew where Matthew was. Again, but with some pain, she was able to answer truthfully that she had no idea. If she didn’t completely know why Matthew had to leave when he did, leaving even her in the dark, she did now.