Abduction

“Donald, how about turning on the outside lights for a moment,” Suza

“We’re only passing through five hundred feet,” Donald said. “There’s nothing to see.”

“It’s Mr. Bergman’s first open ocean dive,” Suza

“Call me Perry,” Perry said. “I mean, why be formal while we’re packed in here together like so many sardines in a can?”

Suza

“Donald, as a favor to me, turn on the lights,” Suza

Donald complied without further comment. He reached forward and snapped on the external halogen lamps on the port side. Perry turned his head and glanced out.

“Looks like snow,” he said.

“It’s trillions of individual plankton organisms,” Suza

“I’m glad,” Perry said.

Donald switched the lights off. “No sense in using up valuable battery power with that type of reaction,” he explained to Suza

In the ensuing darkness, Perry witnessed twinkling bursts of muted neon green and yellow sparkles. He asked Suza

“That’s bioluminescence,” Suza

“Is it the plankton?” Perry asked.

“It could be,” Suza

Perry nodded but made no attempt to pick up the text.

Nice try, Suza

“ Oceanus, this is Benthic Explorer,” Larry’s voice sounded in the acoustic phone speaker. “Suggest a course two hundred and seventy degrees at fifty amps for two minutes.”

“Roger,” Donald said. He quickly made the course adjustment with the joysticks and changed the power output to the propeller to the suggested fifty amps. He then noted the changes on his clipboard.

“Larry has plotted our position by tracking our pinger and relating it to the bottom hydrophones,” Suza

“What will we do until the divers arrive?” Perry asked. “Just sit and twiddle our thumbs?”

“Hardly,” Suza

“I can’t wait,” Perry said with the kind of sarcasm Suza

Suddenly the monotonous pinging of the sonar changed. The sub was nearing the bottom, and the forward short-range sonar had a solid contact. The tiny screen showed the well head and the pipe snaking down from above. Donald jettisoned several of the descent weights and the craft’s gliding plunge slowed. He then began a careful adjustment of the variable ballast system to achieve neutral buoyancy.

While Donald was busy pumping oil, Suza

Perry’s eyes widened as he glanced out the view port. The planktonic snow had all but disappeared, and the clarity of the icy water was more than he imagined. He was able to see for several hundred feet, and what he saw left him flabbergasted. He’d expected a flat, featureless plain similar to what the bottom looked like on his dive off Santa Catalina Island. At most he thought he might see a few sea cucumbers. Instead he was gazing at a misty tableau the likes of which he’d never imagined: huge, dark gray, columnar forms with flat tops dotted the landscape, jutting up in a stepwise fashion like the frozen pistons of an enormous engine. The haunting shapes extended out as far as Perry could see. A few long-tailed, big-eyed fish lazily darted in and around them. On some of the rock ledges sea fans and sea whips waved sinuously in the current.

“Good God!” Perry exclaimed. He was mesmerized, especially with the dramatic music in the background.

“Rather exceptional, eh?” Suza

“It looks like some ancient temple area,” Perry exclaimed.

“Like Atlantis,” Suza

“Yeah!” Perry blurted. “Like Atlantis! Jeez! Can you imagine bringing tourists down here and telling them that it was Atlantis? What a freaking gold mine this could be.”

Suza

“Current is less than an eighth of a knot,” Donald said. “Coming up on the well head. Prepare to off-load the drill bit.”

Suza

“On the bottom,” Donald said. “Off-loading the payload.”

“Roger,” Larry said in reply over the speaker. “I guessed as much when I heard Suza

“It’s the best one for the scenery down here,” Suza

“If we make any more dives I’ll loan you some New Age CDs,” Larry answered. “I can’t stand that classical stuff.”

“Am I looking at basaltic dikes out here?” Perry questioned.

“That’s my guess,” Suza

“Can’t say that I have,” Perry said.

“It’s a natural rock formation on the northern coast of Ireland,” Suza

“How big is the top of this seamount?” Perry questioned.

“I’d estimate about four football fields,” Suza

“Well, I think we ought to,” Perry said.

Right on! Suza

“Does the whole top of the mountain look just the same as it does here?” Perry asked.

“No, not entirely,” Suza

“Where was the fault in relation to the well head?” Perry asked.

“Due west from here,” Suza

“I think so,” Perry said. He pushed his face against the Plexiglas to try to look slightly behind the sub. There was a row of columns at the edge of his visibility. “Would finding a transverse fault be significant?” he asked.