by J C Ryan
Those were the times when Randy would have the server bring out the scotch and soda and other drinks and hit it hard. It helped to numb the senses a bit, and it was almost as if it also helped them to be a bit more accommodating of the mindboggling information.
Carter would just smile most of the time. He had seen these kinds of reactions many times in the past.
Carter fed the information to them in chronological order, which meant they got to talking about the Dolphins last, and that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
“You stop right there, mister.” Randy had his hand up. “I’m not risking damage to my brain by taking that in without some sort of anesthetic.” He ordered the server to bring the drinks but told him to leave the full bottles, mixers, and buckets of ice on the table where they could get to it quick and easy.
Randy had downed the first double like a shot of schnapps, poured himself another stiff one, looked at Carter with drink in hand, and said, “You were saying something about dolphins?’
At some stage, Carter was worried they didn’t have enough alcohol and headache tablets on board to cure the Captain and his crew from information overload syndrome. But they got through it — the pictures, audio, and video recordings of Carter and the team talking to the Dolphins helped them understand and believe, along with the alcoholic beverages.
With little else to do but enjoy the sun and spray while the boat sped across the Atlantic, Carter’s team thoroughly enjoyed the fourteen-day luxury cruise before the skipper informed them that the Pillars of Hercules would be coming into view within a few hours.
Except for the days when they’d be on the dive site itself, this was the most dangerous part of the voyage. They hadn’t seen another ship in the open ocean, but there was always the risk of encountering pirates this close to the Spanish and Moroccan shorelines. However, any pirate trying to take La Solitude would find it a very costly mistake. Carter, Mackenzie, and the others all came out onto the open deck to watch for the first view of the Pillars of Hercules. None of them had ever seen it from the Atlantic, though Carter had seen it from the Mediterranean side before on a previous archaeological expedition.
Mackenzie was the first to shout with excitement when she spotted the Rock of Gibraltar from the port side. The others rushed to her as she pointed to the shadow in the mist far ahead. By this time, they were about forty nautical miles from the Strait of Gibraltar, the roiling passageway between Spain and Morocco, one of the busiest stretches of water in the world.
Chapter 65 -
Into the Alboran Sea
A little under four hours later, they had entered the fray, making their way steadily through the strait without interference from the Spanish Coast Guard. They were expected. Because the US had a large military presence in Spain, diplomatic relations were cordial enough that all the authorities had to say was the boat was a private research vessel, headed for an unspecified location within the Mediterranean. No one felt it necessary to specify the Alboran Sea, connecting the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean, or that the research was classified top secret-plus.
Following the vague references to their capital city that Liu and Carter had gleaned from the library of the giants, they studied what they had on the satellite maps and directed the skipper to a location due northwest from the City of Lights to the northernmost coordinate of the Alboran Sea, where a line would intersect the Spanish shore at the northeastern limit of the bathtub-shaped body of water. There they would begin their survey, using sensitive underwater depth-finders to map the sea floor in places of interest before sending the ROV down for a closer look.
Carter’s team were relying on two things to help them find what they were looking for. First was the electronic data gathered from the satellite and other surveillance methods, and second was his hope to get help from the Alboran Sea Dolphins. Due to their hasty departure from the Chesapeake area when Rick was killed, he had no way of knowing the outcome of the ansible communications between Joanna and her Alboran Sea relatives, nor whether he and his expedition were even welcome in their territory.
He could only hope that the Dolphins of the Alboran Sea were as friendly and helpful as the American Dolphins were. He had to shrug off a fleeting thought that the land-humans from some of these countries bordering the Alboran Sea were not so friendly with infidel land-humans, particularly those from America. He could only hope that the water-humans of those parts were not of the same political and religious persuasion as their land counterparts.
A systematic, scientific grid search would be attracting all kinds of attention, at least two kinds of which they desperately didn’t want to attract. There was no way to camouflage the boat from satellite observance, which would bring the Nabateans sooner or later. Nor would a slow, methodical patrolling from Spain to Morocco in a grid fail to attract pirates before too many days had passed. The area was simply too jam-packed with other vessels to expect privacy.
The references to the capital they had were so vague that unless they could pinpoint locations with their sophisticated equipment or the help of the Dolphins, the whole expedition would soon become a very expensive holiday paid for by the American tax payers.
Chapter 66 -
Contact
They reached the first site on the afternoon of the second day after entering the Alboran Sea.
Carter didn’t say it, but he was getting a little worried that they had not spotted any Dolphins yet. Not that he expected a welcoming committee and red carpet when they arrived, but still . . . he could not help but wonder about his earlier musings about political and religious persuasions.
Before they’d dive the site, they’d send the ROV down to have a quick look-see. He didn’t expect much, as the depth meter showed it was only about twenty meters. The proximity to shore and the relatively shallow water made it inconceivable that the site hadn’t been thoroughly explored previously.
“Carter, why are you bothering with this site?” Mackenzie asked.
“First, to be thorough. We can’t afford to overlook anything. Maybe this site has been explored, and maybe not. You know I’ve on several occasions made groundbreaking discoveries on digs that have been “worked” for years. And second, because my refresher course in scuba diving was short, and this site is relatively shallow. I’ll be glad of the practice. I’m rusty for record-level scuba diving, but this one’s a piece of cake.”
Put that way, it sounded like a great idea to Mackenzie. Carter had explained the limitations to her. The “official” world record — the Guinness — for a deep scuba dive was just over 332 meters (1,090 feet), and the diver who set it, a forty-one-year-old Egyptian diving instructor, had trained for it for four years. With no such training, she didn’t want Carter anywhere near that depth.
The ROV was lowered from the launching bay and sent down to the site. For the next hour or so, the operator maneuvered it around under direction from Carter, stopping, hovering, turning back at times, focusing the cameras on certain features, taking still pictures and videos as it went along. While the operator returned, and docked the ROV, they all began studying the pictures and videos.
The next morning, Carter and Dylan had the honor of making the first dive of the expedition. Dylan, an ex-Navy SEAL, was an expert diver, so although he didn’t have underwater archaeological experience, his skills and experience was comforting to Carter and Mackenzie.
Dylan stayed out of Carter’s way as he swam among the ancient, drowned buildings, but was watching his back all the time. Carter was looking for anything that would give him a sense of the age of these buildings. Most useful would be pottery, coins, or other artifacts he could date almost on sight.
They’d been down on the first dive for about half an hour when a swiftly-moving gray shape brushed against Dylan, causing him to cry out in alarm. Their linked helmet mics transmitted the cry to Carter and to the spectators watching the screens in the electronics room on deck. Mackenzie’s and Liu’s hands flew
to their mouths at the same time. They both saw the “thing” moving past Dylan, but it was too quick to recognize. Their sigh of relief came in unison when they heard Carter’s voice.
“Ms. Dolphin, I’ve been waiting for you. Where have you been all this time?” And then some muttering, following which Liu swore sounded something like, “I just hope you’re not some religious nut job.” She’d have to clarify that with Carter and Dylan when they were back on deck.
A weird, electric tingling went through Carter, and then he could hear a high-pitched sound transmitted through the water. He was certain the Dolphin was speaking to him, but without the translation device, he was helpless to understand or respond.
“Sam, you’ll have to make a plan to connect the translation device to our helmets. We need to be able to talk to the Dolphins while we are underwater,” Carter said right away.
“Onto it, boss,” Sam replied enthusiastically.
“Dylan, what do you think? Should we cut the dive short and go see what this lady’s saying? Or keep searching and hope she goes to talk to Mackie?”
“Up to you, buddy. She’s probably just saying hi. Why don’t you try waving at her?”
Carter lifted a hand and made a waving motion, feeling a bit silly. It was probably not a gesture they understood. To his surprise, the Dolphin “stood” on her tail and waved her pectoral fin in a reasonable facsimile of a human wave. Carter smiled broadly, and the Dolphin responded with the chittering he’d come to associate with Dolphin humor. Seeing her understanding of his gestures, he pointed toward the boat above. The Dolphin seemed to bow a couple of times, almost like nodding, he thought. Then she swam upward toward the boat.
“I’ll be damned,” he muttered to himself in awe. “Mackie, be ready to welcome the guest we have been expecting for days now.”
“That was something, all right,” Dylan responded then flipped the switch on the mic so that only he and Carter could talk to each other. “These Dolphins, ah . . . water-humans, are just the most amazing creatures I’ve ever encountered. Please don’t tell Mackenzie I said so, but they are even more remarkable than her wolves.”
“I promise I won’t tell her.” Carter chuckled. “She might just decide to take out her unfulfilled revenge on you for the killing of JR by that Russian rat.”
“My sentiments exactly.” Dylan laughed and switched the mic back to all stations.
Turning to his task, Carter put the Dolphin encounter out of his mind and continued his meticulous search for an artifact. When Dylan’s dive watch indicated it was time to return, he told Carter, who reluctantly concluded that this site had probably been picked clean years before and followed Dylan up.
On the boat, he found Mackenzie in a state of bliss. The friendly Dolphin had indeed understood his gesture and had come to visit. She and Mackenzie had been conversing comfortably, and the Dolphin was still in the area.
“Carter, she got a message from Joanna! It’s true! They can communicate instantly, all the way around the world. It’s like they’re linked psychically. Joanna sent Merrybeth, that’s this one, a picture of us!”
Dylan just shook his head and mumbled, “How the . . . ah, don’t worry . . . just forget it. I’ll never understand it.”
In good-natured torment of Dylan, Carter took it in stride, as if this was an everyday occurrence for him. “I figured she would. And I don’t think Dolphins know how to lie, so I believed her. It just took a little imagination to understand how it worked. So, what did she have to say?”
“Well, I’m sorry to inform you” —Mackenzie giggled— “but Merrybeth thinks I’m the leader. I guess Joanna didn’t educate her on how we land-humans do things. We’ll need to tell her and hope she doesn’t get her nose out of joint!”
“Joanna didn’t take it too badly. You and I just have to give her consistent information. Will you introduce me?”
“Oh, of course!” Mackenzie said with a big smile. Stepping to the rail hand-in-hand with her handsome husband, Mackenzie spoke into the mic. “Merrybeth, this is Carter, my mate.”
The Dolphin rose vertically in the water and waved her flipper at Carter, then gave the characteristic Dolphin laugh, followed by a flood of other vocalizations.
“Greetings, Carter. You are very clever. I like this method of saying hello.” She waved her flipper again.
Astonished, Mackenzie looked back and forth between the Dolphin and her husband. “Was that a wave?”
“I believe it was. I couldn’t understand or talk to her when she introduced herself underwater, so I did what Dylan suggested to say hi. It looks like she understood me.”
“Indeed, it does. Well, she’s been asking me what we’re looking for. I wonder if there’s a way to get the idea across so she can tell us where to find the city without us having to do this onerous hit and miss searching?”
“I think we first talk to them about the giants,” Carter said. “See if they have any knowledge about the giants. If they know about the giants, then a very big part of our problem could be solved.”
Mackenzie nodded. “I see where you’re going. But it’s late, and I see she’s gone already. Let’s get our ducks in a row tonight and ask the lady first thing in the morning.”
Chapter 67 -
Brainstorming
That night, after another dinner worthy of a five-star restaurant, Carter asked Captain Randy, Mackenzie, Liu, Sean, Dylan, James, and Sam to join him in the lounge area for drinks and a brainstorming session.
He laid out his plan to talk to Merrybeth about the giants and the prospect that she might know where they would find that city. His suggestion met with everyone’s approval. What remained was to figure out how to get the message across to the Dolphin.
Sean sat back, closed his eyes for a while, deep in thought, and then very calmly said, “Pictures.”
“Pictures?” Carter asked and then a big smile broke across his face. “Of course!” he exclaimed then started grinning. “So, your head does actually contain a brain. I could have sworn its only purpose was to keep your ears apart.”
Sean slowly raised a middle finger in Carter’s direction, and everyone exploded in laughter.
Captain Randy only shook his head — this was a tight knit group of very loyal friends who had obviously eaten a bag of salt together. He liked them and was excited to work with an outfit of this caliber.
When the bantering finally dwindled down, Sam laid out her plan of action. “Okay, tonight there’s going to be no rest for the wicked. My sidekick already started work on setting up a link between the translator device to the diving communications devices.
“I will need all the help and brains we can muster to interpret those sonar images. So far, we were able to ‘translate’ what they have sent us, but we now have to figure out how we send sonar images back to them.”
***
By the next morning, when the first rays of the sun announced the start of a beautiful day, they were ready. They’d had such an eventful night with getting everything ready, they didn’t even realize they hadn’t slept.
After breakfast, Mackenzie called out to Merrybeth. Within a few minutes, she appeared, accompanied by about ten other Dolphins. She introduced her pod, and then Mackenzie introduced everyone in her pod, as was required by Dolphin etiquette per Joanna’s schooling back in America.
“How can we help you, Mackenzie?” Merrybeth asked once the introduction ceremony was over.
“My mate, Carter, wants to talk to you. He has lots of questions for you and pictures to show you. Is that okay with you?”
“Yes, Mackenzie. Joanna told me that you are afraid of sharks. We will be very glad to help you.” It took a moment’s thought before Carter and Mackenzie realized the Dolphins weren’t talking about literal sharks, but the “land-humans” they wanted to steer clear of. A few moments of clarification on both sides set up the device to use context to decide whether to say “sharks” or “bad land-humans”, the phrase Carter came up with to mean enemy.<
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“I am happy to speak with your mate, Mackenzie.” Merrybeth followed her reply with a leap from the water, waving her fin as she fell back.
Carter laughed and waved back. Then he took the mic and began to explain that they were looking for a place where “big land-people” used to live, many generations ago. He was getting the hang of how the Dolphins understood time, but putting it in terms the translator could get across sometimes caused a few minutes’ back and forth before he felt they were on the same page.
After explaining that this was a long time ago, Carter had to explain “big” and “little” and, as he remarked to Mackenzie much later, “just right”, or the range of sizes of humans on the boat. At last, Merrybeth understood, or he thought she did, and supplied the whistles and beeps to the translator.
Finally, Carter and Dylan suited up and entered the water with images of the giants from the library. He couldn’t imagine how Sam and her assistant had modified the laser printer to print on Captain Randy’s linen tablecloths, but there the images were, almost as large as life. He and Dylan each held a side of the cloth while Merrybeth twisted back and forth to eye it first from the left, then from the right.
At last, she spoke, but with hesitations between her whistles, and a few consultations with her pod. “We think we know of a place like this,” she said, after swimming around to see the back of the cloth. “It is bigger than this. Big land-people used to live here, but the place was once on land. Now it is in water, and no land-people live there now. Carter, we are not sure. This ‘picture’ is like the edge between water and air. The caves where the big land-people lived are like your metal fish. You can go in and out.”
She seemed to struggle with the concept she was trying to convey. Carter was equally puzzled, until Merrybeth swam around to look at the back of the cloth again. Then he flipped the switch so what he would say was only for Dylan’s ears. “Oh! She doesn’t understand the one-dimensional image. We forgot, so much of their ‘vision’ is actually enhanced by echolocation.”