by E. Coulombe
“Guys, wait a minute, look! Something else’s out there. Do you see it in the water? No wait, it’s gone. Now! There. It’s coming closer.” George strained to see thought the darkness, but his eyes were not as good as Michael’s. Lono fetched the dive light.
“Where?” Lono scanned the 100 megawatt light over the water.
“There,” Michael pointed to the right, “here, let me have it.”
“We should get the dive gear Lono,” said George. “This could be important.”
“Hold on,” Michael stopped Lono, “I swear I just saw an arm.”
“An arm?”
“Yea, like a human arm, coming up.” Michael steadied the light on the water.
“I’m getting my gear,” Lono started towards camp.
“No wait, I see it. Someone’s swimming in.” Michael held the light on the water and they saw, just beyond the two foot wave faces curling over the reef, a man glide over the reef, and swim onto the beach. He was heading towards their light.
“Who in the hell is that?” George stammered.
Lono waded into the water and helped the man drag his dry bag into the sand. “Hello” said George, “can I help you? Guess that sounds a bit strange but then we really didn’t expect company at this hour, and in this manner.”
“Who are you?” Lono was suspicious, “what are you doing here? You’re not Nakoan. You’re not allowed here.”
“Na kale pane. I understand. Please forgive me, nei kua ma. I came because I had to.” Lono’s shoulders relaxed, his fist unfurled by his side.
“Who are you?”
Sam stood up, water dripping off his long black hair. He spoke again, this time in the Nakoan tongue. “My name is Sam Le.” Then to George in English, “I work for the University. I’m a marine ecologist. I’ve come to help you George.”
George slumped down into the sand, and planted his face on his knees. For a second it looked as though he were crying. A moment later, he raised his head, “thank god, I thought you’d never come.”
For the next hour, George and Sam conversed in science talk. Every statement carefully orchestrated to reflect only the known parameters. They referred to each finding as an organism, carefully delineating its features by size, color, shape, but not by reference to known animals. They didn’t need to. Without saying Ediacaran, Sam knew that George was referring to the fossils found in Ediacaria Australia. Without saying trilobite, George understood that Sam was describing the creature in terms directly reflecting trilobites. Always cautious, scientists are reluctant to put a name on a discovery until verified.
Sam questioned all three of them in detail, making them collectively refresh their memories. In the same methodical way, Sam related to George the incident with the organism in the tank. And described the odd way in which it had changed to a similar but slightly different organism than the one first described. “And we can only guess that it must have piggy backed under the other organism, very small at first, and then rapidly grew in the tank.”
Suddenly George was keenly aware of how alone he’d been. Having another expert to verify these impossible discoveries allowed him to verbally develop the insane scenarios that’d been skirting the edge of his thoughts. “Sam, this is brilliant, you have no idea, no idea.” George looked out to sea and shook his head, “I had no one, no one to talk to. My best friend Andrew is now treating me like the enemy, as is his brother and everyone else. If it weren’t for these two boys, I don’t think I would’ve stayed.” He gestured to Lono and Michael, his eyes glistening. “Finally, an expert. Marine paleontology, ichthyology, and native Hawaiian. You are a dream come true, and I don’t mind telling you I’m way out of my league here. You can’t imagine how relieved I am.”
“And I to find you,” Sam retorted. “I’ve studied trilobites all my life. I know every distinguishing feature of every fossil, or nearly, and that’s saying quite a bit because there are more than 10,000 different trils from around the world. I’ve studied them all, breathed them, and imagined them for years, knowing I would never see a live one. Until I looked into that tank.” His voice quavered. “You gave me that chance George, and for that I owe you. No one could stop me from coming here. But unfortunately,” Sam paused, “I can’t stay.”
“What? Are you crazy,” George spoke emphatically, “of course you’re staying. Even if I have to shoot a few cowboys.” He saw Lono’s face snap into a contorted frown. “No, I don’t mean that. I’m just frustrated. But I do mean it when I say you can’t leave us here.”
“Listen George. The Nakoans are wise to me. They saw me trying to get in earlier today and chased me off the beach. We circled the island for the rest of the day, with them watching the whole time. Wherever the land rose free of the forest canopy I could see them on horseback, watching, talking with radios, locating my position. While circling we spotted this camp on the beach. It matched the only location information we had, because you’d scrawled Ko`olau Kai on the fax of the sand casting. But, we didn’t know whose camp it was, and assumed it was the Nakoans. We weren’t sure whether or not to take the chance and land. You know guys shooting at you with guns can be a real landing deterrent. For all we knew this could’ve been the patrol’s camp. But then I spotted that table. And that convinced me.”
“The table?” Lono sounded incredulous.
“Yep. Who, but a paleontologist, would set up a specimen table in the middle of a hot sunny beach? Certainly not a cowboy.”
Lono and Michael shook their heads and smiled. George jumped up onto his feet, dancing in the sand, “You see boys, I told you. What did I say? You’ve got to have a table; it’s not an expedition without one. And you doubted me, how could you?” He rapid fired his sentences, excited by Sam’s presence. Lono shook his head and grinned. George broke out in a song about camping tables; Michael threw sand at him, and Sam laughed at the trio. “So then,” Sam finished, “I talked the captain into this night drop. It was a little risky, but I had to try something.”
“Oh, and are we glad you did! It is so good to have you here – just to tell me that I’m not insane, that you saw the trilobite!”
“But here’s the thing, I only have three hours, that’s all he would give me, and then he returns to Oahu with or without me.”
“Good. Let him go. We don’t need the boat. We need you.” George was emphatic.
“No, I can’t help you from here George. They’re obviously watching you.” He looked at Lono who confirmed it with his silence. “They’ll find me tomorrow and send me back on the next boat out — bare fisted, and with only my story to tell. It’ll be better and faster if I go back tonight with this shell you found. When I show this to the Director of the Marine Science Department, Peter Welsh, he’s going to go nuts! He controls what is undoubtedly UH’s stellar facility – the research lab at Kaneohe Bay, and they have state-of-the-art diving equipment, over twenty full time professors, and god knows how many PhD candidates, and I can hear them all screaming now!”
“Right,” George interrupted, “everyone wanting a piece of the action, fighting over jurisdiction, the University afraid of legal implications if they allow anyone to enter Nakoan waters without permission. You could be delayed for months.” The fear of fighting this battle alone again was written on George’s face.
Sam went to him and gently placed his hand on his shoulder. He spoke quietly, and deliberately, his manners regal, strong, and reassuring. “I can handle it, I will return George.” He paused, as though deliberating what to say next. “Let’s talk straight George. Do you know what you’ve got here? Of course we’ll need verification but if we are correct, you have found a 600 million year old Ediacaran, the Dickensonia, a 400 million year old eurypterid, the sea scorpion, and the larval stage of a 300 million year old trilobite. And now you’ve given me what looks like a nautililoid from the same era.” His bold words reverberated through the quiet still air. George slowly whistled. No one noticed as Lono hit the sand sharply with a stick he had intended for t
he fire.
“Well, now that you put it that way, sounds a bit fantastical, doesn’t it?” George weakened.
“Maybe. Or, the find of the century, or hell, the find of the 1millennium.” Sam glanced sideways, “actually this goes back to …. Damn George, this discovery is up there with fire and wheel!”
When no one else spoke, Sam went on. “I’ll be back George. Jurisdiction won’t be a problem for me. This is way too big for pettiness. The hard part will be keeping the media out.”
“Not to mention the military,” Lono warned.
“They could be of help though, they have some incredible ocean equipment,” George added.
“No way George. Maybe you haven’t had much experience with the military, but we grew up with it,” Sam looked over at Lono. “They would take over completely. Shut down the island, not let a researcher anywhere near here. Except for their own.”
“Well, that would solve your jurisdictional problems.”
“That would solve all problems as this find would soon be non-existent.” Sam turned and walked a few paces around the fire. “No, you’re right Lono, I hadn’t thought of that. If we let this secret out, we would have a hard time keeping it from the military. And that would not be good.”
George stroked his chin. “Well then maybe you should stay Sam. Maybe we should do this on our own. Your knowledge of the trils, my paleontology experience, the best diver in the Pacific,” he pointed to Lono, “we can do this.”
“No, like I said the Nakoans would kick me off. And, we really need a boat George, better yet a submersible. I think I can find us a way. If I get Peter Welsh involved he has the influence and can discreetly get us the equipment we need. He’ll be into it, especially if there’s a chance for a personal reward, such as his name associated with this find. I’ll go directly to him. He can clear all the equipment without revealing the reason.”
“Maybe you can get the university’s gigantic ocean explorer? What’s it called, you know the boat I’m talking about.” George said.
“The Kamehmeha. But no. It left for Midway last month. They’re doing sonar side scans of all of the northwestern chain. Just as well, that’s too obvious. We can bring over Gloria, a smaller, but well equipped ship, which carries the submersible on board. With that, we can safely look in the deep waters. The water isn’t private land; the Nakoans have no say over it. And even if they don’t respect U.S. waters they don’t have the weapons to reach that far.”
“Of course they do Sam. They just get in their boats, get a little closer, and then shoot you. Besides, I suspect that is not where we need to be looking. So far, all of the unusual finds have been in the near shore, shallow waters. There may be something in the deeper oceans but that’s a big place out there and we could spend a lot of time searching for some thing that may or may not exist there. If we concentrate here, in-shore, we reduce the search area and increase the likelihood of discovery.”
“But here, the Nakoans do have complete control George. They see me searching in these waters and they’re going to kick all of us out of here.”
“Stay Sam, we can hide you. I mean just having you here now makes me realize how damn alone and scared I really am. Hell, if you won’t stay I might not either, that’s how frightened I am.”
“No, George, you can’t leave,” Michael, who had quietly listened throughout the evening, pleaded. “What about us? Lono and I don’t know what we’re looking for. Grant and Andrew have no idea what we’re up against. We need you George.”
George looked at Michael as he spoke. The boy’s youth stood out startlingly clear. He’s only seventeen, George thought to himself, so damn young and to be put through this. His bravery in the water belied his age, made him seem older. George had frightened Michael, and perhaps Lono, by being so blunt, and he regretted it. “Don’t worry Michael, I won’t leave. We’re in this together till the end, right guys?”
Lono spoke up. “It’s good if you stay George. We make a good team, the three of us. And we have a plan, remember? Michael and I’ll do all the dangerous work and search the waters, while you stay safely on shore and identify what ever we find,” Lono joked. “Look. I know my people are afraid of many things, one of them being outsiders. But right now they are also afraid of the water, which is why Grant has allowed us to camp here.”
“You’re right Sam, you must go and find more help. The waters here are tainted, and despite Lono’s confidence, we are truly, all of us, out of our depth. I only hesitate because I’m afraid you won’t make it back.”
“I can help you in one other way,” Sam said as he bent over his dry bag and pulled out a small box. “I can leave you with this satellite phone.”
George’s eyes lit up. “A satellite phone! Oh, you are an angel of mercy Sam. Hell, you don’t need to go anywhere. We can call for help right now. Give me that gorgeous thing.” As he reached for it, Lono’s hand shot out from nowhere and grabbed it. He looked hard at both of them, his nostrils flared, his body tensed, the muscle of his forearm twice the size of the heavy black phone gripped in his hand. Slowly and deliberately, he walked to the waters edge, out of the firelight, his frame silhouetted against the dark sea. Lono placed his left hand out in front, pointing it towards the water, he swung his right arm, arced it up behind and over his head, and stood poised for a moment, holding the phone like a spear, prepared to throw it out to sea.
“No!!!! Wait!!!!” George shouted. But Lono didn’t wait. In one fast swift motion the phone, a dark streak against the moonlit clouds, sailed out into the sea, traveling straight like a lance. Beyond where they could even detect it’s presence in the dark, they heard it splash into the sea.
“Oh my god,” George screamed, “What in the world have you done?” He slumped down into the sand. “Shit Lono. What in the hell is wrong with you people? Where in the hell did all this paranoia come from?”
As though frozen in time, Sam moved not an inch. His entire countenance had changed. He rose from the crouching position he’d been in when Lono launched the cell phone, and stood up to his full, regal six foot, six inches height. He filled his chest with air, and his long black hair fell across his broad shoulders. He walked down the beach to Lono, and kneeled in the sand before him.
“Forgive me Lono.”
“Forgive? What are you saying?” George stammered. “Did you see what he just did with your $2000 phone? He just threw away any chance we may’ve had of getting help. And you’re sorry?”
“George, you can’t understand what Lono just did. If you had suffered lifetimes of demoralizing loss — loss of your heritage, your language, your sense of self worth…. Not just your lifetime, but the lifetimes of your ancestors. The lives of your parents, your grandparents, your people back to the first contact with white men. You would have had to suffer as the Hawaiians, the kanaka maoli, have suffered, before you could understand what Lono just did. The Colliers may be haoles but they’ve shown more respect for the Hawaiian people than any other white men who ever came to the islands. It is not for the Colliers that the Nakoans fight to keep their island forbidden – it is for them, the Hawaiian people of Nakoa.”
“And that’s not all, is it Lono?” asked Sam. His voice implied secrets shared between them.
“What are you talking about? What else is there?” George demanded.
Sam’s face asked permission from Lono. Lono nodded. “It’s very likely that all satellite phone communications here are monitored by the military on Oahu.”
“What? You mean the army base across the channel? I’m sure the government could listen if they wanted to. But why would they bother, especially with Nakoa?”
“Have you thought about the odd situation we have here?” Sam said. “This island, one of the most primitive, isolated, self-contained, places in the United States, and closer to Asia than any other American state, is directly across the channel from the most high tech military installation in the US—the home of Star Wars type schemes to dominate the world, even
the universe.”
“Huh?” George obviously George still didn’t get it.
“It was back in the 80’s, and started by Reagan. And while it quietly disappeared from public view, it never really went away. Those NASA facilities on the mountains above Honolulu… locals suspect they are the link to all kinds of surveillance technologies. Very likely, all satellite activity in and around this sensitive, high security area is constantly monitored.”
“Makes sense.” George agreed, but he still didn’t see the danger.
Lono finally spoke up. “That’s not all.” There’s been some really crazy shit gone down out here. Stuff maybe Sam doesn’t even know about. At one time Grant had a deal with the navy, and they built a couple of structures on Nakoa.…I don’t know for what. Then something bad went down and Grant kicked the Navy out. It must have been really bad because Grant used to be a real patriotic, flag waving kind of guy, but they did something he couldn’t agree with, and refused to work with them anymore.”
“Lono my friend, for a man of few words you certainly have given us a lot to think about,” George said. Lono shook his head and half frowned, half smiled at George.
Sam summed it up. “So see George, there’s an extremely sensitive balance here between an ancient, barely surviving Hawaiian culture and the most advanced, American military technology.”
“Living side by side within just a few miles of each other,” Lono added. “You see us as crazy cowboys turkey shooting strangers just for the fun of it, but I believe Grant’s actions are entirely justified. And just you watch George, if anything bad starts to happen, he’ll be the one you’ll turn to for protection. At least I know we will.”
Chapter Forty Five