seaQuest DSV
To Dare Cerberus - Book 1
by katirene (XMP) & Paula (APB)
Prologue: Nothing Lasts Forever
Prologue: Nothing Lasts Forever
15 May 2021
seaQuest dsv 4600
2210 hours Zulu
Lucas and Tony's quarters - C DeckHe found them waiting for him when he came into his quarters from dinner. Eleven electronic posts from a Ballard Institute scientist he'd been corresponding with for the past few months. Currently, she was located at the Marianas Trench, not all that far from where seaQuest was patrolling. The expedition to explore the deepest trenches using a remotely operated deep diving vehicle had run into some problems with the photo-imaging capabilities of the ROV and seaQuest had come to help them out, transporting some replacement equipment and providing Lucas's expertise in re-sorting the imaging array.
Lucas read through the cover note, explaining the providence of the pic files and exactly where each one had been taken.
'... We've talked it over, and decided to give your dolphin, Darwin, the first shot at naming them. So if you could print the pictures out, show them to him and then let me know what he has to say, I'd really appreciate it. I'll even buy dinner next time you're in the area. What do you say? Annie'
He smiled crookedly, brushing his bangs back from his eyes in order to look up toward the swim-tube window above his bunk. Or, more exactly, toward the collage of pictures on one side. The one he wanted was hidden behind a couple of others.
"Why couldn't it be you making that offer?" he asked drily. Receiving no answer from the woman on the unseen photo, he turned back to the terminal and began to open the attachments.
The pictures weren't exactly photos, but composite computer derived sketches based on several image sampling techniques. He began to smile as he printed them off, growing excited at the idea of learning something new, of seeing something that almost nobody else had. And he had an idea.
Using the vocorder translation program, designed by Lucas three years ago, anyone could talk to Darwin, but only one person in the world could actually communicate with the dolphin, because she'd taken the time to learn dolphin for a post-graduate research degree. And it occurred to Lucas that that made Ari Adler the perfect person to have with him when he quizzed the animal on the fish in question.
He stepped out of his cabin and turned forward, thinking that the young ensign might be in her own quarters by now, but in the course of turning, he caught sight of her disappearing around a corner at the opposite end of the corridor. He broke into a run, careening around the same corner and catapulting himself forward.
"Hey! Ari! Wait up!"
The dimunitive young woman, a few months older than the civilian computer expert, turned, an expression of pleasant inquiry on her face. Her lips curled up into a wide smile as Lucas skidded to a stop beside her.
"What's up?"
Grinning back, Lucas raised the pages and waved them to call her attention to the print-outs.
"You remember Deep Peeper? The Ballard Institute expedition? Well, Ann Hallett sent me the first results."
"Ann Hallett?" the woman echoed archly, with a knowing smile. "I remember her. Very pretty. Very nice. If I recall, you impressed her a lot."
"Doctor Hallett is also a good seven years older than me. Too old. I prefer women closer to my own age," he shot back. Ari shrugged off the innuendo, reaching for the pictures she could barely see. Lucas started to hold them away, then caught himself and held them out to her.
As she shuffled through, looking at the sketches, Ari was very conscious of the young man standing beside her. They had been friends since she had joined seaQuest, working closely on several research projects including dolphin communication. She liked him, felt like an older sister to him, which was why she was so worried about him lately.
Every since Sandra Kirby had betrayed him, using him to steal the deep submergence vessel for a terrorist group, Lucas had been acting wary of women, avoiding all potential emotional attachments. While he seemed happy enough hanging out with the gang, she didn't think that it was that healthy a situation for him. And she knew that Miguel Ortiz, the sensor chief to whom she was secretely engaged, agreed.
"She's only twenty-six, Lucas. Hardly an old woman," she pointed casually, ostensibly examining one of the fish.
"You're right. I was thinking she was closer to thirty," he replied cuttingly. Miguel had turned thirty on his last birthday.
Controlling her reactions, Ari took a deep breath, holding it briefly before letting it out again. Squaring the corners, she handed the pages back.
"Very nice. Thank you for sharing them with me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." Turning on the ball of her foot, she started to walk away. Lucas caught her up again.
"Wait a minute. I'm sorry, I ... Look, she sent me these to identify." Ari gazed at him stonily. "She asked me to ask Darwin about them, get the dolphin names for them. So, I thought that you should be there." He searched her face for signs of softening. "Come on, Ari. You know that this is something you should be involved in. Ground-breaking interspecies communications. An acknowledgement by the scientific community that aquatic mammals can make a contribution to the fund of human knowledge. You can't say no."
She began to waver, then shook her head, dashing his hopes.
"I'm sorry, but... This isn't going to work," she said, sounding reluctant but determined. "Dolphins don't see the way we do. They..."
"You're meeting Miguel, aren't you? You're actually going to put him before this!"
"What!? It isn't that, and you know it. We're taking advantage of the down time to do some regular maintenance work on one of the WSKRS. Something that we scheduled yesterday, not spur of the moment, and not just the two of us alone. I don't appreciate your insinuations, Lucas. Now, I'll help you if I can when I've got time for it. Which I don't now. I'll see you later." Still fuming, she walked away.
"Yeah. Sure, I understand. Any time," he muttered bitterly at her retreating back. Sullenly, he turned toward the moonpool.
Miguel Ortiz wasn't going to be on the seaQuest forever, Lucas reminded himself. The older man was due to leave the ship at their next port of call. He'd been accepted in an accelerated officer training program. Odds were that when he was done with that, he'd be assigned elsewhere, but even if he did return to the 'Quest, a lot could happen in six months.
Tennesee USA
6:30 pmA fifteen year old Afro-American girl, pretty and delicate looking, lay on her back looking up at the darkening sky and made a small, happy sound. It had been a good trip, all told, even though it was coming to an end tomorrow. Her drill troupe had won the right to represent the state in the national competition, out of all the local troupes statewide. That had been yesterday, and because they'd come in first, they didn't have to do any of the dinner chores. And then today, the entire camp had gone to watch the Blue Angels had performing at a local air field. That had been the most glorious thing she'd ever seen.
The radio, tuned to the international military station, began to play a song by the Silly Shee and the girl sang along with the first verse.
** Nothing lasts forever, all must pass away
Things are gone tomorrow, that were new just yesterday
Everything must perish, everything must go
'Cause nothing lasts forever, doncha know **A shooting star appeared in the sky and she sat straight up, her face blossoming with pleasure. Closing her eyes tightly Jasmine Jael wished with all her heart that someday, she could be a good enough pilot to join the Blue Angels.
seaQuest dsv 4600
2231 hours
C-deck WSKRS maintenance bayAri had the radio on, tuned to some folk ballad music program on the international military station. Miguel was listening with half an ear while he checked the connections inside the sensor satellite, and wondering a little about her taste in music. It could become a problem, he acknowledged, even though they had agreed to compromise. She'd listen to his music without comment and he'd listen to hers, without complaint.
He shook his head slowly, thinking about the agreement. It was going to be difficult, if this was a sample of what she liked This thing was morbid. 'Nothing lasts forever' indeed.
"Did you hear me, Miguel?" she asked, and he quickly reviewed the past few minutes. She'd been telling him about the encounter with Lucas in the hallway. He thought he'd better have a talk with that boy before he left for re-training.
"Lucas has a bunch of pictures of fish that no one's ever seen before," he recited dutifully, holding the screwdriver up and waving it. "Solder gun. And he's planning to ask Darwin what he calls them."
Ari gave his back a knowing grimace as she carefully placed the gun into his hand. He didn't fool her.
** Man shall chose his Woman, and Woman meet her match,
They join the dance we call romance they spin until they catch. ** the song announced."Can you hold the tip of the solder right there?" Miguel asked, pulling back a little. As Ari leaned against him to get the soft metal wire where he indicated, he rested his eyes on her trim, neat figure with pleasure. And a combination of wonder, awe and breathless disbelief that she was his and he was hers. It still didn't seem real
"And he didn't want you to help interpret?" the darkly handsome, muscular noncommissioned officer asked, accepting the gun and frowning. "How about holding the tip of the solder there, Ari?" he continued, pointing with the gun. She nodded and turned to pick up the coil of soft metal. Settling back on his heels, Miguel Ortiz admired his companion's neat, petite figure, a sense of continuing wonder, awe and disbelief that she was finally and compleatly his competing with smug satisfaction.
** Every child born to sorrow knows its final end
The best that you can hope for is a lover who's a friend. **Life was good. He'd passed the tests, gotten the recommendations needed, and been accepted into an accelerated officer training program. And Ari had not only admitted that she loved him as much as he loved her, but had agreed to marry him when he finished the program. And then there was last week's liberty. His smile broadened. That was one liberty that he would never forget.
"Hey, cara, any other native rituals Darwin wants us to participate in?" he asked teasing. Her almost translucent, fair skin colored faintly and Miguel's smile broadened. Life was good. He leaned closer to kiss her cheek and a flicker of movement caught his eye. Quickly, he jerked away and turned to see who was there.
Alerted by the sudden movement, Ari turned also, gazing from his transfixed eyes to the empty space he was staring at.
"Miguel?" she said, in a small, confused voice. She reached out to touch his broad, strong shoulder. As she did, she thought she saw something from the corner of her eye and she turned her head again to look.
2234 hours
seaQuest, Ens. Barlow's private quartersCommunications Officer, Lt. Tim O'Neill, j.g. emerged from the private watercloset in the VIP quarters currently inhabited by Ensign Treysa Barlow, buttoning his shirt and whistling an old tune. He stopped when he realized it was clashing with the song playing on the radio.
** So turn around and turn about, gaze in the mirror bright
See the lines from living that lead toward the night **Smiling contently at the lounging creature still in flagrante delicto on the bunk, he sighed happily. "How you conned me into that when I needed to report to the bridge in an hour I'll never know. We need to stop taking chances like this, and you know it." He walked over and kissed her forehead, grinning to show that he hoped she wouldn't.
** Join the dance together, join it if you will
For when the music fades away, the dancers all are still **Trey grinned back at him, sated and ready for sleep. But as his words percolated through her brain, indignation roused her. "CONNED you? I don't remember using words so how did I con you?"
She stretched her long, lovely lithe body, and even in his afterglow, he could feel parts of him standing up and taking notice.
"Tell me you didn't enjoy that," she challenged him, then yawned. "Oh, that leave this weekend spoiled me rotten, waking up with you, makes me want you full time." She made a fascinating moue of disappointment. "Not that that can happen for a long time." She peeked rougishly downward. "I see, I still have your attention."
Tim cleared his throat uncomfortably and Trey realized her teasing had gone too far. With a sheepish look on her face, she pulled the blanket up to her neck. "Sorry, I guess I need to grow up again."
Tim leaned over and pulled the blanket back down, sitting beside her and putting both arms around her body to hold her in place so he could kiss her properly.
"You have my undivided and absolute attention, Treysa Barlow. But considering you just made a renewed commitment to the UEO and the dolphin project, we're not going to have a 'normal' life as a couple in that way, so stop torturing yourself, Tresu."
His fingers tickled down her ribs, getting a shiver out of his lady, as he idly observed, "We're lucky, you know. Miguel and Ari have years to wait and once he gets his commission they'll never end up on the same boat." He leaned forward again to kiss her and caught sight of her bedside clock. "Oh, no! I better get up to the bridge. I love you, mon Tresu, and I'll see you in about 8 hours."
But as he turned toward the door, he froze, staring off into space. Trey regarded him with sleepy confusion for a few moments, as she drifted off to sleep, worn out and satiated.
2236 hours
C-Deck, MoonpoolThe final verse to the song was playing as Lucas looked at the fish on the page.
** Nothing lasts forever, so they all say
Seabeds rise, mountains fall, the sands all blow away.
Tiny streams are stifled, Rivers cease to flow but...
Nothing lasts forever, Doncha know? **"Depressing!" he mumbled to himself as the last note undulated up and then faded and he reached over to turn it off. "I don't see how Ari can listen to that stuff." The Silly Shee. What a stupid name. And insulting, too. But Ari had just giggled and told him that he didn't understand. He snorted scornfully. Understanding or not, it was a stupid name, and that was almost a dirge.
The discontented young man shuffled the picture to the bottom of the stack and held up the next. "Ok, what about this one?" he asked the creature in the pool. The dolphin squealed and clicked a response that the computer program Lucas installed four years ago interpreted as "Moldy sneeze." The human grinned reluctantly, convinced that he was having his leg pulled. Of all the crew, Darwin was the worst for playing practical jokes with word games. It would be just like him to give him the wrong word.
"Moldy sneeze?" he repeated incredulously. But Darwin insisted firmly, "Moldy sneeze!" Lucas put it at the bottom of the pile and moved on to the next.
Tony Piccolo, an ordinary seaman onboard the seaQuest as part of an early release program, came through one of the hatches jauntily, carrying a refurbished scuba suit and Lucas observed drily to his roommate, "This guy's got names for fifty types of fish we haven't even classified. Only problem is, there's no way to translate them."
It would be a lot easier if Ari were here, he thought to himself. And she should have come, this sort of thing had bearing on her thesis project, "The Feasibility of Interspecies Communications between People; Homo sapiens and Cetaceans: emphasis on Tursiops truncatus."
"Fascinating, Lucas. I'll try to remember that next time I date an ickyologist," the young urban tough quipped lightly.
Flipping through the pictures, Lucas replied absently,"That's 'ichthyologist', Tony."
"HAH! Not where I'm from," came the quick retort. Lucas wondered if Tony ever had dated an ichthyologist. On the face of it, it didn't seem very likely, but the young computer genius had learned in the half year they'd been rooming together not to make assumptions about the other man. Tony continued to surprise him.
As he sorted through the papers, he became aware of the seaQuest janitor, Dagwood, standing perfectly still with his head cocked to one side staring into space. Curious, Lucas glanced over at the space that was fascinating the simple minded dagger, just in time to see an odd image appear, like something in the holographic generator.
He blinked to clear his eyes, and focused more closely, then shook his head. Where was he? This wasn't the moon pool of the seaQuest. He wasn't anywhere that he... A voice raised in tones of insincere indignation, each word polished smooth and meaningless by the use of habitual prevarication attracted his attention toward a nearby opening. He stopped and leaned forward, almost falling over as he peered in through the open door. Maybe he did recognize where he was.
Soaking wet and aching with fatigue in every muscle of his body, Lucas Wolenczak stumbled past the guards through the door into the high, open meeting room of the UEO council. It was a round chamber, with podiums along the walls, each prominently displaying the name of the confederation or country or alliance attending the meeting.
But Lucas didn't notice any of them. He was barely aware of the rising, disbelieving hum of voices announcing his identity. The speaker stopped short and Lucas didn't even notice, the only reality for him was the man standing up in the centre, the Secretary General of the UEO, Thomas McGath. Reaching out, trying desperately to get to him, Lucas knew that he had to warn him about, to tell him, to ... Fingerlengths away, the over-extended youth finally collapsed. As if that were the signal, chaos erupted all around, but the unconscious young man was unaware of the pandemonium he had triggered.
His head broke the surface of the water and he took a long shuddering breath, expelling the air he'd been holding for so long, with a great sigh of relief."Hey!" The unexpected shout from the sand startled him into diving down again. He'd thought that he was alone. That's what he'd seen last time he'd surfaced. Cautiously, he re-emerged from the water, making no noise, and examined the intruder.
It was a man. Automatically, that made him an enemy. Difficult to be sure, but the swimmer thought the trespasser was fairly young and in good shape. But, whoever he was, he had no business being here. No one except his people were supposed to know the way in. His pleasure in the outing spoiled, he prepared to dive again, to leave the invader alone in his desecration. But, before he entered the water, the man called out a name that every true person knew.
"Darwin?"
Windsurfer stopped short, stunned briefly by the cry. Perhaps he'd misunderstood, or was hearing things. But no. The man repeated himself.
"Darwin,....seaQuest!"
This was a puzzling turn of events. He'd heard stories about the famous dolphin who roamed the oceans in a boat called seaQuest, meeting with all of the pods, studying the mysteries. Perturbed, afraid and worried, Windsurfer dove down to the bottom of the lagoon, to think the situation through.
He'd loved the tales of the seaQuest when he was a young calf, spending hours listening to the story tellers of the pod as they recalled the great, lost scientist that had assumed the name, 'Darwin'. That hero of his people had volunteered to live among the strange and puzzling humans in an attempt to discover if they were indeed people, or just clever animals. For this great sacrifice, exile from the people, he was honoured by all the pods.But he and the fabled, almost mythical boat he commanded had been lost almost a year before Windsurfer was born. No one knew what had happened to either one, no sign of wreckage could be found in all the seas of the world. The seapeople had recruited whales to dive deep, seeking.
One of the things that Windsurfer remembered from the stories was that every human serving Darwin on the seaQuest understood and spoke fluent dolphin. Perhaps, if he tried speaking to this stranger, he might answer, might understand.
Windsurfer rose up and whistle clicked the question, "Who are you?"
There was no answer. The man had fallen on the sand, and lay still, his hand outstretched toward the water. Thoughtfully, Windsurfer dove deep and left the sea cavern. He needed to consult with the elders of the pod over this.
Chapter 1