The Valteran Ascension (A Paradox of Time Book 1)

by Mara Amberly

  “We’re getting close,” Eric replied. He tapped a tiny point on the map. “We’re at this point. The ship’s further up here,” he added, touching his finger to the hologram.

  His finger passed right through it, casting a pattern of light on his finger’s surface. It fascinated Cora.

  “It’s about half a mile away,” he said.

  Even without his wrist device, Eric would’ve known where to look. The man who’d rented him the boat – a bearded Irishman named Mulligan – had warned them off a part of the loch dubbed the Devil’s Cesspool. Evil vapours rose at times from the loch there, but its saving grace was that Nessie had never been seen there. If she had been, then there would’ve been no end to the people poking around.

  Nessie was a legendary monster that inhabited the loch. This was the first Eric had heard of her; he wasn’t sure how they knew Nessie was supposed to be female. Eric wondered if he was somehow responsible for creating the monster in the first place if it was real. Humans were known for superstition, but there was obviously some element of truth behind the Devil’s Cesspool because its location matched that of his ship. He suspected he knew how it had gained its name: his ship had leeched contaminants and radiation into the loch over hundreds of years.

  He wasn’t sure about Nessie though. Perhaps the radiation had altered some of the natural organisms in the area or a life form aboard had escaped, growing and changing in the natural environment. Obviously, they never transported loch monsters, but there were frequently scientific samples, transported from numerous worlds back to his home planet of Valtera.

  Cora continued rowing, and the water grew murkier the closer they got to the ship’s location.

  “Devil’s Cesspool indeed,” Eric murmured.

  He felt some guilt over it; the loch was polluted as a direct result of his actions, as unintended as they had been.

  “The water looks darker here.”

  Cora glanced up at the sky as she felt the first water droplets against her face.

  “The weather probably has something to do with it too,” she added.

  Realising they must be close, Eric checked his TSAI 40 again.

  “We’re coming up on it now,” he said, relieved.

  “So how are we going to get in?” she asked. “Do you think it’s safe?”

  “Let me see,” Eric replied. “I’m detecting high peat content in the water, especially around here. The contaminants don’t seem all that bad.”

  It was a pleasant surprise, but he knew they must’ve been far worse hundreds of years before.

  “It looks safe for both of us,” Eric said. “The only thing is I never learned to swim. It might slow me down a bit, but I’m willing to learn.”

  “You can’t swim… at all? We came all the way out here…” Cora’s voice had risen in pitch.

  “People learn all the time. It can’t be that hard.”

  “It takes time, Eric. For some people a lot of time,” Cora exclaimed.

  “If it does, then it does,” he stated matter-of-factly.

  “How far down is your ship?” she asked. This adventure wasn’t turning out the way she’d thought.

  “According to my…” he indicated his TSAI, “it’s forty feet to the hatch. I can adjust the air pressure inside from here.”

  “You’re not going to be able to manage that easily. It’s hard to see in dark water like this and that makes it dangerous.”

  He’d taken plenty of chances before, but there was something in Cora’s tone that suggested it was different this time.

  Eric smiled at her. “Don’t smack me for asking, but how good a swimmer are you?”

  She rubbed her eyes like it was all a bit too much. “I can swim, but I don’t want to ruin my dress.”

  “That’s good,” Eric replied, possibly ignoring the latter part of her response.

  “I’ve got a rope in the bag too, so we could drop that down in the water if it might help?”

  Cora nodded, “yes I think it would. Is there anything I can tie it to on the outside of your timeship?”

  “I don’t think so, but there would be if you open the ship’s outer hatch. It’s an airlock so the water won’t get inside the ship other than a short way through the hatch while the door’s open.”

  “I don’t want to get trapped in there if there’s no air,” Cora said. “That could end badly.”

  “What if you open the hatch, tie a rope to it and come back up? I could follow the rope down?” Eric suggested.

  “That might work,” Cora said. “Is that safe to use in the water?” she asked, indicating the device on his wrist.

  Eric nodded. “It could withstand just about anything.”

  The Holographic Matrix Projector sprung to mind and it certainly hadn’t, but the circumstances were different and so was the technology.

  “Maybe it’s better not to chance it,” he said at last.

  “So that leaves me to do this,” Cora replied, as she considered another possibility. “Unless you give me that to use,” she said, indicating his wrist device.

  “You don’t understand the ship’s operations,” Eric replied, not wanting to offend her. “It’s also in my native language. Most things can be translated but it can’t be. It’s a security protocol programmed into the device by my people.”

  “You don’t expect me to dive in this, do you?” she asked, indicating her dress.

  Eric shook his head and glanced out over the water, which showed no signs at all of the ship hidden below it.

  “I’ll need the rope,” she said, as she took off her shoes. “Please, turn your back.”

  Eric obliged, as impractical as he found it to be.

  She didn’t fully undress, but she stripped down to her shift.

  “I imagine your father would have something to say about this,” Eric said, suppressing a grin as he lifted out the bail of rope.

  “Oh yes, you can be certain of that,” Cora replied. “He’d give you a harsh talking to, lecture you on spoiling my honour, and then pester you with questions about your ship.”

  Eric’s light-hearted humour was only superficial; he was worried about Cora. The last thing he wanted was her to get hurt.

  Eric tied one end of the rope to a hook on the side of the boat and double-knotted it. He’d heard of sailors’ knots but they weren’t in his repertoire. He was after all a different kind of sailor.

  “I appreciate you doing this,” Eric said.

  “I know and I just want to get started.”

  Cora put on a brave face but her voice held a tone of worry.

  Eric took careful note of the ship’s location. “It’s about thirty feet in that direction,” he said, pointing away from the nearest shore, “and down from there. There’s a panel at the lower right side of the back, where it juts out from the hull. It’s about…” He looked around, considering the best way to describe it. “It’s about the length of your forearm. I’ll activate it here; it should glow which will make things easier,” he said, keying in his code. “You just have to press the symbol at its centre. It looks like, uh… this.”

  Eric climbed closer so Cora could more easily see the symbol. It looked like a series of concentric circles, with each inner circle smaller than the last.

  “The ship is shaped like this,” Eric said, as he showed her the overall design.

  It was strange and certainly alien to her eyes. It didn’t look like any ship she’d seen before. She’d seen drawings of stingrays that lived in tropical waters and it reminded her of one of those, only without a tail.

  “I really don’t know what to say, Eric,” she admitted. Cora had never felt so out of her depth, but she had a sense that was just beginning.

  “I know, but you will. Trust me on this,” he said. “When you press the symbol, the outer door will open and you can tie the rope around it. I don’t think you’ll have time to do all of that in one go, so come back up when you need to. You can always dive again,” he said.

 
“What if the stories of Nessie are true?” Cora asked nervously. “You don’t really think there’s a sea monster in the loch, do you?”

  “I don’t know,” Eric admitted. “The loch’s huge, so if there is one, it’s likely to be far away from here.”

  Cora had wanted to come along on this adventure. She reminded herself there were bound to be parts of it she didn’t like.

  “If you tug on the rope twice, I’ll pull it up, so I can help you surface faster.”

  “Very well,” she agreed, glancing over the edge of the boat. It looked cold, but then it seemed to be that time of year.

  “The things you do to see a spaceship,” she mumbled, before climbing carefully over the side of the boat.

  Cora gasped in shock from the cold water, but she didn’t stay long on the surface. She dived down, disappearing beneath the depths of the loch. She was only gone a short time before she surfaced again and gripped the side of the boat.

  “I can’t see much at all below; it’s so dark. Here, give me the rope and I’ll take it down with me. I don’t think I’ll easily see the symbol, Eric. If I just press the panel, will that do?”

  Eric handed the bail of rope over, nodding. “If you press the other symbols they won’t do anything because they’re not activated. Just aim for the middle of the panel and press it until the door opens.

  Cora knew she had to find the panel first, and that might take some time. She uncoiled the rope in the water, then took another breath and dived back down.

  Eric kept watch from the boat. The water slowly rippled from the breeze over the loch and splashed where the rope moved below the water. At least he knew Cora was alive down there. As the moments passed, he realised she was taking a long time; but then with the ship so far down, she’d need to. He reached over and tugged lightly on the rope. It felt heavy in the water and had a lot of give in it. He checked his TSAI 40, and it showed life signs for himself and Cora. It also showed his ship and the fact the hatch remained closed.

  “Come on Cora,” he urged, as he measured the time she was down there. It had passed 30 seconds and was heading for a minute. He decided that too long had passed and pulled on the rope; he had no idea if she was holding it.

  Eric searched around the boat, until Cora surfaced a moment later, gasping much-needed breaths of air.

  “I’m so glad you’re alright,” Eric said, as he extended a hand toward Cora.

  She swam closer and grabbed it, and climbed awkwardly back up into the boat, splashing it with water.

  “I didn’t find the panel yet,” she said, catching her breath.

  Her clothes were stuck to her body and her hair was wet against her back.

  “It’s a long way down.”

  “I’m sorry I put you through that,” he said.

  Eric wondered if they might have to go ahead in time to find better technology to help them reach it, but he suspected if they tried enough, they’d succeed. Maybe it was time he joined Cora in the water.

  “What could you see?” Eric asked.

  “Not very much,” Cora replied. “It’s a big hulking shape in the darkness. It’s not hard to find the surface, but identifying any part of the ship, in particular, is difficult.”

  “I see,” he replied, a bit at a loss for words.

  “I’m going to dive again to see if I can reach it,” she said.

  “Are you sure you’re alright with this?” Eric asked, turning to glance at the water.

  “If I wasn’t, I would say so,” she promised him.

  Cora climbed back over the side of the boat into the water. There, she grabbed hold of the rope and grasped it as she dived back down.

  A ripple in the water was the last sign of her presence, and Eric was left alone in the rowboat.

  He felt useless there, but he also knew there were advantages to being this close to his ship. He scrolled through the options on his TSAI 40 and took some atmospheric readings. He didn’t notice anything outside the range of normal, despite the threatening vapours that he’d been told afflicted this part of the loch.

  Scanning the communication frequencies turned up nothing; no broadcasts, messages or even a distress signal. His ship probably had broadcasted a distress signal when it had first crashed, but if so, it had probably stopped long ago.

  He could tell the engines were currently inactive, and the ship was building up its power reserves. He’d already been aware of this, but he also knew the power should’ve been at full capacity hundreds of years before.

  There was a splash beside the boat as Cora surfaced.

  “I think I did it. I found it,” she gasped as she caught her breath.

  Eric breathed a sigh of relief when Cora returned. He extended a hand to help her into the boat, but she seemed to prefer staying in the water.

  “That’s brilliant. Did you activate it?” Eric asked.

  “I tried,” Cora replied, “but the hatch didn’t open. Have you registered any change?”

  Eric checked the ship’s readings, at least the limited ones he could see.

  “I’m getting an error. It seems that it might be stuck. I probably shouldn’t be surprised; it’s been submerged for hundreds of years. Did you see anything like barnacles on it?”

  “What? No,” Cora replied. “You’re probably not going to get them in a loch.”

  “Maybe it was damaged on impact,” he surmised.

  It could be a problem if it was.

  “If we can’t get a complete seal on the hatch’s door, the hatch won’t pressurise. We wouldn’t want to be stuck in there without air.”

  “This isn’t encouraging,” Cora admitted.

  “I think there’s only one solution for it, and I’m going to need to go in there myself. I appreciate you doing as much as you have, but I can’t ask you to risk it, Cora.”

  Eric took off his jacket and peeled off his shirt. He had a few items in the pockets of his trousers, so he stored them in his jacket instead.

  Eric opened up the bag he’d brought along for the trip and pulled out a crowbar.

  “I had a feeling this might come in handy when I saw it,” he said with a grin.

  “Where on Earth did you get that?”

  “You have your secrets, I have mine,” Eric replied.

  “What about your…?” Cora asked, pointing to his wrist device.

  Eric wasn’t going to leave it sitting in the boat, even though he knew it would be safer there. Where he went, it went. He just hoped it had stayed watertight. It would be useful to have on him if he got stuck in the ship.

  “It’s coming with me,” he said simply and grinned when he noticed she intentionally glanced away from his bare chest. He’d have liked to strip down completely because he didn’t want to get his clothes wet, but he knew that would be extremely inappropriate around Cora. He left his trousers on, knowing he’d regret it later when they stuck to his legs. Still, if he managed to get back aboard his ship, it wouldn’t matter in the least.

  Eric climbed into the water, gasping at how cold it was.

  With a slight giggle, Cora waited for him as he moved around the boat to the rope.

  “I’m swimming,” he said with wonder.

  “Well you’re not sinking,” Cora replied. “Try going under and holding your breath.”

  She knew it was an effort to hold her breath for as long as she needed to.

  It took a few attempts, but Eric was able to hold his breath for over thirty seconds at a time before surfacing.

  “You know this is reckless, of course?” she asked.

  He nodded. “I know it is, but needs must and all that.”

  Eric reached into the boat and retrieved the crowbar. He also activated the light on his wrist device. It mightn’t help much, but some more light to see by was better than the alternative.

  The distance between the rowboat and the ship seemed further than the measurement on his TSAI. He didn’t make it all the way to the ship the first couple of times, because he wasn’t s
ure he’d have enough oxygen to last him and it seemed safer turning back. The water was dark and the ship was huge. All things considered, it was a wonder Cora had found the panel at all.

  She went with him, then when Eric changed direction, she followed him back up to the surface.

  “This isn’t working,” he said, beginning to grow frustrated. His ship was right there below them.

  “Give me the crowbar and I’ll try and get it open. Once I do, you can try the airlock if you want to.”

  Eric handed it over and let Cora get to work. He followed her down underwater as best he could, growing accustomed to holding his breath. Cora swam toward the dark silhouette of the ship, Eric following; directing his light at the ship’s hull. The light was obscured as the water was murky, but he spotted the panel in the dark and motioned to Cora. He soon realised why she’d spotted the panel before; it was marked around the outside by a fine, glowing red light.

  He had no choice but to turn around and swim back up to the surface. Before he did, Eric saw Cora take the crowbar to the hatch door, attempting to lever it open.

  He knew there was no delicate way to force it open, but he didn’t want to risk damage.

  Cora surfaced around twenty seconds later, gasping in breaths of fresh air.

  “It’s not open yet, but it’s getting there,” she said, grinning.

  “Thank you,” Eric exclaimed. “I appreciate it, Cora. Be careful not to damage it too much, okay? It’s the only easy way in.” He tried to be delicate, but clear.

  “I’ll be careful,” she promised him, before diving back down.

  Eric followed her down under the water. It took some time to get there, but he was surprised to see she’d succeeded and managed to pry the hatch open.

  There was no outlet for their happiness, as Eric swam toward the surface, using the rope as a guide. It took him a long time, and by the time he got there, he felt exhausted. He was grateful to gulp in the fresh air and grinned when he saw Cora’s expression of happiness and relief.

  “It gave way as soon as I put some shoulder into it.”

  “Well done!” Eric exclaimed, “and thank you so much, Cora.”

  “That’s alright,” she said. “I haven’t tied the rope around the hatch but you’re going to need it to close anyway, so I’d suggest we leave it as it is. If you get down there and manage to close the hatch and fill the room with air, how will I know? There’s no way to tell me if you’re in trouble, is there?” she asked, concerned.