by JC Ryan
“We share something like ESP,” Mackenzie answered. “Another time, I’ll tell you all about it. And if Keeva and Loki have no objections, I’ll be happy to introduce you. They do make their own choices about whom they trust.”
“Fascinating.”
The research clinician had a similar question about when her expertise would be called upon. “I understand animal trials will come first, and I agree. But I’m here already, so there must be a reason.”
“Indeed, there is. In the first place, you need to be intimately familiar with our progress. But with whatever head start we can get from the libraries of the ancients, I hope to make that progress rapid. Meanwhile, between locating information in the libraries and implementing our experiments, I’d like you to also carefully study the information and see if you can relate it to modern humans. Not going down unfruitful research pathways is as important as going down the right ones.”
“It will be my privilege, Dr. Devereux. I can’t tell you how exciting this work promises to be.” She smiled.
Again, Mackenzie requested to be called by her first name, and she winked when she said, “No need for you to tell me. I’m over the moon myself! My work was interrupted over a year ago, and I’m anxious to get back to it. Why don’t you spend the next day or two cataloguing and arranging your lab supplies to your satisfaction? I’m sure we’ll have some reading material for you by then. In fact, as soon as you’re ready, I have something I turned up in a European library. It’s quite a bit later than the material in the libraries of the ancients, but I found it interesting.”
Mackenzie didn’t name the source of the material she meant for a reason. She’d illegally copied an ancient text called the Sirralnnudam, which was later stolen. She’d been in deep trouble for her role in the disappearance, though she’d been cleared of the theft. It had all worked out, her copying thereof forgiven in the aftermath of the text’s destruction. At least they had the copy, and if she hadn’t made it the material would have been lost forever.
When she got back to her own lab, her assistant wasn’t there. She went through to her office and found the assistant perusing her library, and Liu waiting for Mackenzie.
“What are we doing today, boss?” Liu asked, teasing Mackenzie by calling her ‘boss’.
“Where did we leave off?”
“Gosh, it’s been months. Why don’t we start with the lab notes, and bring everyone back up to speed?”
“Sounds great. Do you know how to find them on this thing?” Mackenzie waved vaguely at the elaborate desktop setup.
“Maybe we’d better start by calling in your new IT specialist,” Liu said, laughing. “I’m sure to get it wrong and erase everything.”
Mackenzie made a horrified face. “I do hope you’re kidding, but that’s a good idea. However, I’ll have to call Sam. The person you’re referring to is more of a data specialist and mathematician than a hardware and network person.”
The rest of the afternoon was spent in learning the ins and outs of the computers and network, understanding the multiply-redundant backup system, and finding the accumulated work Mackenzie had done on the project before she was interrupted.
To her surprise, she found files on her work while in captivity in Saudi Arabia. “I didn’t know we had this! Thank goodness it wasn’t lost!”
Liu smiled. She had been with Mackenzie when Carter and his team rescued them, along with Liam and the surprise baby girl, Beth. “We were all traumatized after our rescue, and then you were pulled into another of Carter’s adventures. I guess it slipped my mind. I had a flash drive when I was captured, and when they searched me… Well, let’s just say they weren’t as thorough as they could have been. I copied our research notes every day, and when we left our, mmmm, ‘guest quarters’, I brought it with me.”
Mackenzie had a feeling Liu had conspired with Carter to spring this surprise on her. She smiled happily and gave Liu a bear-hug. “I’m so glad you’re sneaky, Liu. Thank you!”
“Ladies, can we focus here?” the assistant asked. “What are we talking about?”
Mackenzie and Liu looked at her and simultaneously burst into laughter. “I guess it isn’t common knowledge,” Mackenzie gasped after she stopped laughing. “Can you wait until tomorrow? I think I’d better have another staff meeting to bring everyone up to speed on what I’ve done already, along with where I’ve done it, and who I was with.”
The next morning, after Mackenzie had checked with Irene whether she could divulge her time in captivity to her team, she assembled them again and filled them in on the progress she’d made in Saudi Arabia with Liu’s help. However, she cautioned that some of the results had been obtained by inhumane testing of her work against her will and before she’d been satisfied with the safety thereof.
“We’ll have to repeat everything, and this time go more cautiously. Science done under duress is not trustworthy.”
She dismissed a sober group of teammates with the fear that they would consider her a victim. “Do you think they’ve lost respect for me?” she asked Liu.
“Not only do I not think that,” Liu answered, “but I think their respect has doubled. As it should. You endured our captivity with grace and dignity, even in the darkest hours. What other woman would have made any progress on a scientific question while believing her husband had been killed, and that she, her young son, and an unborn child were at risk of the same fate?”
“You were there, too, Liu. You had as much courage or more. You helped keep me sane.”
“That would not have been possible for me alone. Your Keeva and the telepathic connection you had with her did that.”
“Well, both of you have my eternal gratitude, and Carter’s,” Mackenzie said. There was nothing more to be said that the hug they shared then didn’t convey. Such experiences as they’d had together either forged unbreakable bonds or made intractable enemies. Mackenzie was certain that Liu would have given her life to keep the children safe. There was no deeper friendship than that.
5
A WEEK AFTER Mackenzie’s research team began their work, it was time for Carter to visit the Alboran dig again, or as he sometimes called it, the dredge. It was his droll way of acknowledging that the work was being done underwater.
Every month or so, a discovery would require his presence at the site. Frequently, Mackenzie accompanied him, or had done so before her research got back underway. She always enjoyed visiting with the pod of dolphins that had been so helpful in the discovery. Merrybeth and her pod took a continuing interest in the work, and they patrolled the waters around the operation regularly, though they also ranged throughout the Mediterranean. On this occasion, however, Mackenzie was too involved in supervising her team as they took up the research. She couldn’t leave them so soon.
“I’ll say hello to Merrybeth for you,” Carter said as he kissed her and the children goodbye. “Be back in a couple of weeks.”
Mackenzie sighed. She wished the dig was finished and Carter could stay home with them for a longer time. It seemed they no sooner settled into a comfortable home routine, then off he went again. But she knew it was the nature of his work, and the fact that he’d made the commitment to A-Echelon meant that even when the Alboran dig was finished, if not before, there’d be another assignment.
A little while later, it was her turn to kiss the children and send them off to school for the day. Liam was advanced for his age. Other nine-year-olds would be in fourth grade. Thanks to his early home-schooling, he’d been reading at five, and though they tried to keep him with his age group now that there were other children around, he was reading at a level that few twelve-year-olds could boast. He’d also taught Beth to read, so at five she’d started first grade. Mackenzie was proud of them, but she also worried about their social development. Brilliant children often outstripped their age cohort in intellectual learning and were maladjusted socially as a result. She and Carter would do anything they could to prevent that.
Once Liam
and Beth were out the door, Mackenzie changed into jeans and a favorite old soft T-shirt and made the short walk to the lab. In July, the weather on Freydis was near-perfect, with warm, sunny days and mild but cool nights. The half-mile walks to her lab always made her happy, and she was sure it would be no different in other seasons, but the scent of wildflowers perfuming the air, the gentle breeze, and the peaceful feel of the ranch lifted her spirits like nothing else could. Different from her love for Carter and the children, or her friendship with the people she and Carter had surrounded themselves with, it was a visceral joy she couldn’t explain. She only knew it happened when she was immersed in nature.
In the distance, she spotted Keeva and Loki teaching the pups, now half-grown, to hunt, and sent a thought of greeting to them. Keeva lifted her head and seemed to gaze at her for a moment. A bright, fierce longing to hunt for prey entered her mind and was gone in a second. Keeva was distracted by her task, and had no time to visit, even telepathically. Mackenzie laughed. She was not a hunter by any stretch of the imagination. And Keeva never understood it – she was always trying to engage Mackenzie in her efforts.
Merrybeth, the dolphin, didn’t understand it either, though she was able to articulate her confusion. She and Mackenzie had a few philosophical land-human to sea-human deliberations about whether it was moral for Mackenzie to eat the ‘prey’ of others when she didn’t want to hunt herself. It was a cultural difference they couldn’t bridge, but it hadn’t marred their friendship. They’d agreed that their species had different standards of morality, but that the universal love for their children made them more alike than different. Mackenzie thought Keeva would have agreed, had the wolf been inclined to self-introspection, and had she been able to communicate like the dolphin.
Mackenzie entered the lab with a smile, thinking about the distant friends that Carter would soon greet for her. It had been the surprise of a lifetime when they’d discovered that dolphins were more intelligent than anyone had theorized before – that they understood human speech, kept records of their history in their heads, and most surprisingly of all, that they and humans had once been able to understand each other’s speech without the need of computer technology to act as translator.
She and Carter had also learned that the dolphins had long-distance communication with their species around the world, and that they had a sophisticated understanding of human life, as well as some of the same social instincts. Land-human, she mentally corrected herself. It was what the dolphins called homo sapiens, which itself turned out to be a rather narrow-minded description of human characteristics. The Latin phrase homo sapiens meant wise man and had been used for centuries to distinguish ‘land-humans’ from animals – that is, every species other than mankind.
But dolphins also referred to themselves in words that meant the same thing: wise, or intelligent, beings of their species. The translation devices she, Carter, and his exploration team now used to communicate in real time with the dolphins translated the word as ‘human’. Admittedly, it had taken some getting used to. But now Mackenzie thought of Merrybeth just as she did other women, as a friend rather than like a beloved pet. Only with a different sense of fashion, she reflected, grinning.
“What’s got you so chipper this early?” Liu asked as Mackenzie entered the building.
“Just thinking about Merrybeth, and how much I miss her. I wish she could visit here like other friends.”
“Don’t tell me you’re now going to build a guest ocean,” Liu teased.
“If only I could!”
“Have you ever thought about respirocytes with respect to dolphins?” Liu asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, would there be any advantage to dolphins if we could develop respirocytes for them?”
“That’s a great question, but I can’t answer it. Next time I have a visit with Merrybeth, I’ll ask her. But I think we’d better perfect them for humans — land-humans that is — first. That’s what we’re being sponsored to do.”
“Oh, yes, our overlords, DARPA,” Liu said, making a wry face.
“It’s okay, Liu. I can’t think of a better application than saving the life of a nineteen or twenty-year-old who would otherwise lose it on a battlefield halfway around the world from his home. Can you imagine? Barely older than Liam, and yet they volunteer to go and fight terrorism far from friends and family, to preserve our way of life.”
“Mackenzie, they’re twice Liam’s age, at least. And I’m sure not all of them are so altruistic. Aren’t there other reasons for joining the military?”
“Of course, there are. But they know before they do that the price is potentially their death or devastating injury. And they’re just babies!”
“Now I’ve gone and spoiled your good mood,” Liu mourned.
“No, just turned my thoughts in a more productive direction. Let’s get to work. I can daydream about Merrybeth visiting another time.” And about Carter being at home, safe in my arms.
“I just dropped by to let you know I’ve finished the translation of the last treatise you gave me,” Liu said. “It was interesting. I guess this research has been ongoing throughout modern history.”
“I know, which makes it more daunting. How am I to expect success, when the greatest minds in the modern-day past could not have it?”
Liu smiled. “Well, for one thing, you have all their work to build on. For another, you have confirmation that there was more oxygen in the atmosphere in ancient times, just as you theorized before Carter found the Giants.”
“To be technical, Carter didn’t find them…”
“I know. Okay, before he found their library. Anyway, you know you’re on the right track, and that the culmination of your research, assuming you’re successful, will revolutionize medicine. The ability to inject oxygen directly and safely into a vein will save countless lives and provide a better quality of life to people whose respiratory function is compromised. Just think of the implications to MS and CF patients, stroke and heart attack victims, victims of auto accidents and oxygen deprivation – drowning! I could go on.”
“Thank you for the lecture, Liu. I think I’m the one who told you about all that,” Mackenzie said, laughing. “You’re preaching to the choir.”
“You’re right, but as your biggest fan, save Carter and the kids, I can’t help but get excited when I think about what a benefit it will be. Can you tell me what progress you’ve made since you opened the facility here?”
“Not much, I’m afraid. It’s only been a week. But everyone is almost up to speed on what I’d done before, and they’re getting there on the old research I’ve gathered. Thanks for getting that last thing done. The Hippocrates, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. Smart old dude. Interesting how his theories have come back into vogue.”
“Yes, it is! Well, I’d better get to work to earn my keep around here. Thanks again!”
Liu waved as she stepped past Mackenzie toward the door. “You bet.”
6
AHAB’S PREPARATIONS WERE almost complete. He’d written a grant request for funds to spend six months on Crete, searching for the definitive proof that a Labyrinth had ever physically existed. He’d cleverly disguised his real purpose for doing so. After sending the request unsuccessfully to several major universities in Europe and the United States, he’d been approved by a joint venture between Egypt and Libya.
The two countries hoped he’d find there was no archaeological reason for them not to explore for oil and gas in the Mediterranean Sea between Crete and their claimed offshore limits. The nearest distance between Crete and the mainland was less than 200 miles. Despite international law and agreements, the seabed between the island and its southern neighbors on the African continent had been a source of controversy throughout history. Libya could technically have claimed Crete as its own, and Egypt had almost as valid a claim, assuming both were based on the continental shelf theory giving countries dominion over up to 350 miles of conti
nental shelf, versus the territorial sea sovereignty standard of twelve nautical miles.
Both countries could use new sources of natural resources, and they’d be willing to finance an expedition that might support their claims. Furthermore, both countries were willing to keep their involvement in the expedition secret, and neither was interested in any report other than whether the seabed gave evidence of ancient ruins below. International pressure would presumably hinder their drilling in the sea if ruins were found, but if not, and if they could keep the project secret until drilling platforms were complete, the fait accompli would make it difficult for any other country to mount an effective objection. Ahab didn’t care one way or the other, so long as he got his funds.
By the time Mackenzie and her team were beginning their work on Freydis, Ahab had outfitted his one-man expedition and arrived on Crete posing as a wealthy sport fisherman on an extended trip of several months. His purposes didn’t allow for a team, but he did charter a yacht for his sea adventures. He paid double the going rate to be allowed to captain it himself. He could not risk a crew getting wind of his extraordinary abilities to stay underwater for up to four hours at a time and sustain great physical exertion like a draft horse. In fact, he wouldn’t have needed the yacht except for his desire to efficiently search a grid that would require its navigation system.
Ahab began by taking the boat out daily on a clockwise exploration of the seabed surrounding Crete. He thought of it as the continental shelf, though in truth, Crete was neither a continent, nor was there a shelf per se. The Mediterranean Sea was a remnant of a much larger ocean, dubbed the Tethys Ocean by geologists who studied the history of the earth’s crust. Over millions of years, during which the Tethys Ocean had been cut off at the eastern end by tectonic drift of Africa toward Europe, the resulting body of water had dried up at least once, for a period of about 630,000 years, before being flooded again. This body of water was now called the Mediterranean Sea, and some believed it had completely or nearly desiccated several times during the roughly five and a half million years since it was formed.