Marc was having ADI look up the various books and documents that he would have the librarian pull for him tomorrow when Catie came running up.
“Daddy. You have to come in the water. It’s so warm; it’s nothing like San Diego or Hawaii.”
“That’s because of the Gulf Stream,” Marc said. “Warm water from the equator flows through the Gulf of Mexico and gets warmer, then it flows by Florida before it heads north to New England and over to Europe.”
“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. I’ll ask ADI to go over it with me if you’ll just come in and swim with me.”
“You’re about to ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ yourself back into the room,” Marc said right before he chased Catie into the water. She got him to let her stand on his shoulders so she could dive into the waves. They did that a few times before Catie was hungry enough to want to go back to their beach chairs to order lunch.
They each ordered a chicken sandwich with chips. “I believe you promised to study up on the Gulf Stream,” Marc said.
“Oh, come on, can’t I do it later?”
“Well, you’re not going in the water for at least an hour, so why not take care of it now. Maybe you’ll be able to use it for a school paper.”
“Okay,” Catie acquiesced. “Have you talked to Mommy yet?”
“Not yet,” Marc replied. “I’m sure she’s still processing.”
Catie rolled her eyes. Marc could barely tell since they both had their specs tinted for the sun. But the umbrella they were sitting under provided enough shade that the specs were partially see-through.
Catie got a lesson on the Gulf Stream from ADI and continued her study of geometry; she’d started studying it so she would be able to navigate. All she really cared about was getting to fly one of the fighters sitting in the flight bay on the spaceship.
Finally, enough time passed, so she was allowed back in the water.
Catie ran down and jumped into the water. She swam out and floated while she waited on a wave. She caught one and rode it toward the shore, using her hands to keep her up on top of the wave. When the wave broke over her, she rolled out of it and popped to the surface. Another girl was standing on the beach, cheering her. “That was so cool.”
“Thanks,” Catie said. “I learned to body surf in Hawaii.”
“Oh, I hear they have the best waves there.”
“I think so,” Catie said. “My name’s Catie.”
“I’m Julia,” the girl said, pronouncing the J as an H, Spanish style.
“Do you ride the waves with a wave board?” Catie asked.
“No, I like to run down the beach and jump on it,” Julia said. “I can slide for a long way.”
“If we had a rope, I could pull you along. I wonder how far we could go.”
The girls looked along the shore and finally found a piece of ski rope. “This will be perfect.”
Catie pulled Julia down the beach. They got going very fast before the wave board slide out from under Julia’s feet. She landed on her butt. “Ouch,” she squealed. “That was fun. Your turn.”
Julia pulled Catie down the beach, but she had a hard time getting her up to the same speed that Catie had gotten her to; finally, she ran out of gas. “Sorry.”
“Hey, that was good,” Catie said. “Watch out, incoming,” Catie added as she pointed toward a couple of boys coming toward them.
“Why don’t you let us pull you?” the tall blond asked. “We can make you go faster.”
“Sure,” Catie said. “It’s Julia’s board, so she should go first.”
“I’m Bill,” the tall blond said. “This is Hank.”
“Hi guys, I’m Catie, and like I said, that’s Julia.”
Julia grabbed the board, “Great, let’s see how fast we can go.”
The guys grabbed the ski line and started pulling Julia. She squealed, “Faster, faster,” just before she caught a wave wrong and went spilling into the water and sand.
“That was so cool,” Julia shouted. “Catie, you’re going to love it.”
“My turn,” Catie hollered back.
“Want me to hold your glasses?” Bill asked.
“No,” Catie answered. “I can’t stand the sun in my eyes. They’re attached pretty well.”
“Are you sure? Julia took a pretty gnarly spill there.”
“I’m sure.”
Bill handed Catie the end of the line, then the boys took off, pulling Catie. They were going even faster than they had pulled Julia. When Catie finally lost control and crashed, Bill was right there to help her up. He grabbed her hand and pulled on her; just as she was getting up, he reached for her specs. As he grabbed at them, Catie pushed his hand away.
“They’re fine,” she said angrily.
“Come on, I want to see how they stay on.”
ADI warned Catie that Hank was coming up behind her, highlighting him in the HUD display. Catie tried to push by Bill, but he grabbed her. She immediately brought her knee up into his crotch and pushed his face with the flat of her hand.
“I said, no! Now get lost!”
Bill bent over in pain after the knee to the groin. “Get her,” he yelled at Hank.
Catie put her right fist into her left palm, extended her elbows horizontally to the side, and whipped around to face Hank. She caught his left shoulder with her elbow, then she did a palm strike to his face, aiming for his nose. She got a good hit on it, making it bleed.
“Run,” Catie yelled at Julia, who was standing behind Hank, trying to figure out if she should run or attack. The two girls ran up the beach toward Marc, who, having been alerted by ADI, was already running toward the girls.
“Are you girls okay?” Marc shouted when he got close to them.
“Yeah, we’re alright,” Catie gasped. “I’ve got some snot on my hand,” she added as she went to the water to wash it off.
“What happened?” Marc asked as he and Julia followed her.
“A couple of jerks wanted my specs,” Catie said. “I used some of the moves that Liz taught me, then we ran.” Catie then gave her father a big hug as she let out a little sob.
“I was so scared,” Julia said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
“I’ll call the police,” Marc said.
“Don’t, Daddy,” Catie said. “They’ve run off by now, and I don’t want to have to answer a bunch of questions.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Boy those moves Liz taught me really work,” Catie laughed. “But it’s not really the same as hitting someone.”
“You really laid into Hank,” Julia said. “He was crying when we ran. And Bill is going to be sore for a month.”
“Serves him right,” Catie said.
“Okay,” Marc said. “Why don’t we go to the hotel and get some ice cream. I think you two girls need a break.”
After ice cream, Catie and Julia decided to watch a movie on the suite’s big screen TV. While the girls were watching the movie, Marc hid out in his room and prepared for his research trip to the library.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Do you want to tour the campus before we go to the library?” Marc asked Catie the following morning.
“Why?”
“You might want to go to college here; and if not, it’ll give you a sense of what college life would be like.”
“I plan on going to the University of ADI,” Catie replied.
“That might get you a great education, but I don’t think it’ll be a very marketable degree.”
“I think that by the time I’m twenty, that won’t be very important,” Catie replied.
“Why not?”
“You’re going to change the world,” Catie declared with confidence.
“Oh, there is that,” Marc replied. “Just what I need, more expectations.”
“Come on, my dear Oracle, the library is this way,” Marc said, “but of course you already knew that.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“While we’re there, you should write your paper on th
e Gulf Stream. If you homeschool, you’ll need to start submitting papers and doing homework.”
“Killjoy!”
“Just being a good father.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Marc spent the afternoon having the librarian pull the documents and books he and ADI had identified as pertaining to the Spanish galleons they were looking for. They documented the time that they were sailing through the area when the hurricane hit. There were some papers written by a couple of college professors that tried to predict where they would have sunk. Fortunately, they were a few hundred miles off, which left the galleons for MacKenzie Discoveries to find. The work was interesting, but given that it was just for show, it was hard for Marc to really dig in. He kept up the motions, thinking about how they were going to negotiate with the government of Spain more than the research he was doing. He really wanted to work with ADI on developing additional scenarios for introducing Paraxean technology to Earth, was unwilling to do it where he couldn’t guarantee privacy.
After six hours of pseudo-research, Marc decided they had done enough and went to look for Catie. He found her alone in a side room. She looked like she was playing, definitely not writing.
“That doesn’t look like you’re writing a paper.”
“I’m finished,” Catie shot back.
“Did you write it or did ADI write it?”
“I wrote it,” Catie said, giving Marc a hurt look.
“Okay, I’ll read it on our way to Antigua. What are you doing now?”
“I’m practicing on the flight simulator,” Catie said.
“Flight simulator?”
“Yes, the one for the FX4. ADI is running me through the qualification training.”
“Very ambitious of you,” Marc said. “I hope you’re just as ambitious with your studies.”
“I am. I have to learn geometry and trigonometry to qualify to fly the FX4. So, I’m studying geometry now.”
“Very impressive. Are you ready to go? We’re flying to Antigua in one hour, and we’ll have dinner on the plane.”
“Sure.”
As they made their way out of the library, ADI alerted Marc. “Captain. I’ve highlighted a person on your HUD. I observed him at two other locations that you have been to since arriving in Miami. I predict that he is with the group that was observing you in Hawaii.”
“Has he been close enough to observe anything important?”
“He has not been able to observe Catie and her flight simulation work, but he has been checking with the librarian. I predict it has been about what you’ve been taking out.”
“I hope he enjoys the reading,” Marc said.
“What’s up?” Catie asked.
“Someone’s following us, like in Hawaii,” Marc replied. “It’s not a problem. We just need to be careful that they don’t see us using the new tech. So good thinking doing your flight simulator thing in a private room.”
“Duh, I’m not stupid,” Catie said. “These specs are cool, but way ahead of anything that exists on Earth. So, I’m careful.”
“I didn’t say you were stupid; in fact, I was saying you were smart.”
“You should expect me to be smart.”
“Praise doesn’t mean you did something unexpected, just that you did something good,” Marc said. “Now, don’t be sensitive. I’ve always thought you were too smart for your own good.”
Catie laughed, “Good one, Daddy.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Blake met Catie and Marc at the airport when they arrived in Antiqua. “How was your flight?”
“It was great,” Catie said. “Nothing beats flying on a private jet.”
“I agree. We loved our flight from Hawaii,” Blake said. “The Mea Huli just arrived by the way. Should be unloaded in about four hours; Kal is sitting on it.”
“Good,” Marc said. “Are you checked in?”
“Yes, we’re all in the same building at the Admiral hotel. Gunpowder suites, here are your keys.”
Marc laughed. “Yeah, they’re really working the Admiral Lord Nelson thing. Let’s go, the flight steward will bring our bags to the hotel.”
“Nice service,” Blake said. “We had to carry ours. Anyway, our taxi is just over here.” Blake led the way to the exit and to the waiting taxi. “Isn’t that the same jet you guys flew from Hawaii?”
“Yeah, I contracted to keep it for a few months,” Marc said. “I figure we’ll be doing a lot of flying and having our own G6 and a dedicated crew will make it easier. Besides, we really like the crew. I hope you don’t mind me jumping on it without talking to you.”
“Yeah,” Catie said. “They’ve been really nice and responsive.”
“Sounds good to me,” Blake said. “You are the senior partner, old man.”
“Funny, junior,” Marc said. “I want to be able to be decisive and move fast, but we’re still partners.”
“Good by me.”
“I’m going right to the National Archive,” Marc said. “Catie, I assume you would rather hang out with the rest of the crew.”
“Oh, Yeah!”
“Alright, since you did such a good job on your paper on the Gulf Stream, you can have the day off.”
“Cool.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Captain,” ADI interrupted Marc’s preparation for bed.
“Yes, ADI?”
“I have a fifth message for you.”
“Thank you, please put it on my comm,” Marc said. He had kicked himself when he realized he should have put all the other messages on his comm also. That would have avoided all the extra complications that came with Catie discovering them on his computer.
“The message is available now,” ADI said. “I am cutting off my audio from you. Ping the interface when you want to re-engage me.”
“I will,” Marc said as he used his eyes to click ‘play’ on the message. The voice of Dr. Metra came through clearly on his comm.
“Captain, this is my fifth and final message for you. By now you should be well into understanding how you want to proceed. I don’t know what year it is; I had planned that ADI would actively seek out a new captain after we were dormant for forty-nine years. The protocol for a medical quarantine requires that every twenty-five years, the doctor will be awakened to check that the stasis pods are still functional and that the crew is still safe. At that time, I will be required to check whether advances have been developed that can handle the reason for the quarantine. I have already been awakened once.
“Of course, I maintained the quarantine since the quarantine is a ruse to lock up the people who killed the captain. There is no choice. The same will be true when I awaken next, but I hope that you will have been found, and we can find a way to end the quarantine without waking the crew. My hope is that the timing is such that I will be awakened shortly after you find the Sakira or ADI finds you. If for some reason, you have discovered the ship earlier than the year two thousand thirty, I will not be able to provide any assistance to you because the protocol will not allow for me to be brought out of stasis earlier than the scheduled date. Unfortunately, the protocol doesn’t allow for the captain to override it and to bring me out earlier. An oversight in the design. Again, I wish you good luck and look forward to seeing you. Hopefully, that will be soon.”
“Great,” Marc sighed. “I’m always early, this time by eighteen years.” He went to bed, knowing he would be thrashing about trying to digest all the ramifications of the message.
◆ ◆ ◆
The next day the team moved to the Mea Huli. Marc had had everyone gather in the main lounge after they had stowed their gear in their berths. Blake took that time to get them underway, and they were now out of English Harbor and on autopilot in the open water.
“Okay everyone,” he said once they were all gathered, “we’re going to the Bahamas to pick up some extra dive gear that I have waiting for us. Then we’ll be doing survey sweeps as we move to Bermuda. We’ll take a couple of days of rest there and then
do a few more survey sweeps on the way back to the Bahamas.”
“While we’re sailing to the Bahamas, we’ll be doing some dive training,” Blake added. “We want everyone familiar with the gear, and comfortable with deep dives before we actually have to do any real work down there.”
“Questions?”
“Do we know how we’re going to raise the ships?” Liz asked.
“An excellent question,” Marc replied. “I’m hoping Blake has a good answer,” he laughed.
“I have an answer,” Blake said. “You guys will have to tell me whether it’s a good one or not.”
“Well, that’s why we’re here,” Marc said.
“Las Cinque Chagas is going to be the most difficult,” Blake said. “It’s the biggest by far, and I mean big. It’s one hundred fifty feet long with a forty-five-foot beam and displaces over twelve thousand tons.”
“That’s a lot of ship.”
“So?”
“So, the concept is that we wrap it in PVC-coated canvas sheet like they use when they termite a house. The material is readily available and comes in nice large sizes. That will stabilize it. Then we attach lift bags to it until it floats.”
“That’s going to be a lot of lift bags,” Kal said.
“Yeah, but I don’t know of another way to get her to float,” Blake replied.
“Didn’t the ship used to float?” Catie asked.
“Of course, but now it’s full of water.”
“Can we just empty the water out?”
“If it was on the surface, and didn’t have any holes in it, we could. But it’s under more than four hundred meters of water,” Blake said.
“Couldn’t we fix the holes?”
“Probably.”
“Then, couldn’t we replace the water with something else?”
Blake mulled this over, “Hmm, like what?”
“Foam,” Catie replied.
“How would we get the foam inside the ship?”
“Spray foam. I used some last year at school to build my diorama.”
“But this needs to be foam that can expand under the huge pressure the ship is at, not interact with the water and be very light,” Blake said.
“I’m sure ADI can find some for us,” Catie said.
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