Deep Fathom

“What does it say about the crystal’s properties?”

Lisa interrupted. “Maybe Charlie ought to listen to this.”

Jack nodded. “Gather everyone. They all should hear this.”

It took less than five minutes to reconvene in Robert’s lab. Once everyone was settled, Lisa motioned to Miyuki. “Go on.”

With a nod, Miyuki quickly repeated the story, then continued anew. “These crystals changed Horon-ko’s people. They were able to build great cities and temples throughout many lands. As they spread, their society constructed elaborate mines, searching for more crystals. Then, one day, they found a rich vein of crystal buried in the heart of a hilltop. Over the course of fifteen years, they excavated the entire hill away, exposing the crystal spire.”

“The pillar!” Jack exclaimed.

“So it would appear. They worshiped the spire, believing it a blessing from their gods. It became a great pilgrimage spot. In fact, Horon-ko was one of the priests of the pillar.”

“And this great cataclysm?”

“That’s the strange part,” Miyuki replied, turning to her computer system. “Gabriel, could you read the translation starting from section twenty?”

“Certainly, Professor Nakano,” the computer responded from the tiny speakers. “ ‘There came a time of bad omens. Strange lights were seen in the north. Ribbons of light, like waves of the sea, rode the night skies. The grounds trembled. The people came to the god pillar to pray for help. Sacrifices were made. But on that last day, the moon came and ate the sun. The goddess of night walked the land.’ ”

“An eclipse,” Charlie mumbled.

Gabriel continued, “ ‘The god pillar, angry at the moon, blazed brightly. The ground shook. Mountains fell, seas rose. Fires opened in the ground, swallowing villages. But the gods did not forsake us. A god of light stepped from the pillar and ordered us to build great ships. To gather our flocks and people. The god spoke of a terrible time of darkness, when the seas would rise up and swallow our land. In our great ships, we must travel the drowning seas. So we gathered our seeds and our animals. We built a great ship.’ ”

“Like Noah’s ark and the flood,” Lisa whispered.

Gabriel continued his recitation, “ ‘The god spoke true. A great darkness filled the skies. For many moons the sun was gone. Fiery pits blazed, openings to the lower world. Killing smoke filled the air. It grew hot. The seas rose and took our lands. In great boats we traveled to the Land of Big Ice, far to the south. And once there—’ ”

Miyuki cut him off. “Thank you, Gabriel. That’s enough.” She stood. “The remainder of the book relates how the survivors kept their civilization’s history alive. They traveled all around the world, finding other races of man to whom to pass on their stories and teachings, until eventually they were spread so thin that their civilization ceased to exist. Only Horon-ko and a handful of others returned to the grave of their homeland to die. He warned those that remained to beware the old places and avoid trespassing lest the angry gods reawaken.” Miyuki sighed. “It is there the tale ends.”

Jack glanced around the room. “So what do you all think?”

No one spoke.

Jack eyed George. “Does this help with your research into the Dragon’s Triangle?”

“I’m not sure.” The old historian had remained quiet during the discourse, smoking a pipe. He cleared his throat. “Earlier today I came up with intriguing statistics concerning the lost ships of the region. But I’m not sure what they mean.”

“What did you find out?”

“Let me show you.” He rifled through his pockets, searching one then another. Finally, he yanked out a folded computer printout. “I plotted the number of recorded disappearances for each year, going back a hundred years.” He unfolded the paper.

“As you can see, there’s a pattern.” He tapped the paper. “The number of incidences peak and trough very regularly. The numbers grow to a certain peak then taper back off. The size of the peak varies, but not the frequency. There’s a distinct clustering every eleven years.”

Bent over the sheet, Charlie let out a murmur of surprise.

Heads turned in the geologist’s direction.

“Is this significant?” Lisa asked.

“I’m not sure. I need to follow up on a few things.” Charlie turned to George. “Can I borrow this?”

George shrugged. “It’s all in my computer.”

“What’re you thinking?” Jack pressed.

Charlie shook his head, lost in thought. “Not yet.” He excused himself and crossed to his own lab, closing the door behind him.

They all stared after him until Lisa said, “So, Jack, now it’s your turn. What about Karen? What’s this rescue plan of yours?”

The submersible glided toward the deep-sea research station. From the rear passenger compartment of the two-man sub, Karen stared in awe. After twenty minutes of sinking through an ever-deepening gloom, the base had appeared below like a rising sun in the dark, lit by external lamps, its portholes aglow with a warm yellow radiance. She almost forgot about her situation as she gaped at the wondrous sight.

The sub dove toward the docking bay on the underside of the station’s lowest tier. As the vessel banked around, Karen noted the trundling boxlike robots at work hauling cables and equipment. Among them moved other figures: men in armored and helmeted deep-water suits. They looked like spacemen working on the surface of an alien planet — and considering the hostile environment and strangely twisted landscape of tumbled lava pillars, it was another world.

A lantern fish, attracted by their movement, drew nearer the sub. Karen stared back through the five inches of glass, two strangers from different lands ogling each other. Then, with a flick of its tail, it vanished back into the gloom.

From the forward compartment she heard the muffled voice of the sub’s pilot attending to the docking procedure, confirming and rechecking the station’s status.

An okay must have been given because the sub and its two occupants were rising through a garage-door-size hatch and into the docking bay. In short order the hatch was sealed and the water pumped out. Soon afterward, Karen was helped out of the sub’s cramped compartment.

She stretched a kink from her back. The pilot, Lieutenant Rolfe, ordered her to hold out her arms and then undid her handcuffs.

It was the first time since her capture that she was unfettered. Rubbing her wrists, she gazed around and understood why she was granted this new freedom. Where could she go? There was no better maximum-security prison in the world. Escape was unthinkable.

A door opened near the rear of the bay. A man in his early sixties, gray-haired and stocky, stormed inside to join them. He strode up to the lieutenant. “What is the meaning of this? There was no reason to bring her down here. The professor could have aided us just as well topside. The risks to her—”

“Those were my orders, Dr. Cortez,” Rolfe said curtly. “The prisoner is your responsibility from here.”

Cortez moved to block the lieutenant, then thought better of it. “And what about these new orders? Your commander can’t be serious.”

“You’ve read the reports.” The lieutenant climbed back into the pilot’s seat. “I’ll be returning next with Commander Spangler. Take up your objections with him.”

Cortez’s attention shifted to Karen, his brows furrowing as he took in the condition of her face. “What the hell happened to her?” He reached a tentative hand toward her puffy eye, but she shied from him. Cortez swung on the lieutenant. “Answer me, goddamn it!”

The lieutenant avoided eye contact. “Take it up with Commander Spangler,” he repeated, from the sub’s pilot compartment.