Chapter 65: Rescue

I couldn’t sleep. It was almost four am when I made my way to the pilothouse and helped myself to a cup of the ever-present coffee. It was unusual to see anyone keeping watch while we were at anchor, but I guessed that he hadn’t been able to sleep either.

“Can’t sleep?” Captain Alfred asked.

“Not really,” I replied. “I kept having nightmares. None of this is making sense.”

“But didn’t you say that you actually talked to aliens on this pink planet of yours?” he asked.

“Yeah. But it just seems like too much of a coincidence for aliens to start appearing on earth right now,” I told him.

“Is there any way you could ask them?” he asked.

“Hmm ... let me think on it,” I replied. Then taking my coffee with me, I made my way down to the Helipad and sat down on the big ‘H’ in the center of the pad and began to do some breathing exercises to help me relax. The running lights killed my night vision, but it would be dangerous and foolish to be at anchor without them. So I closed my eyes and just listened to the sounds of the sea. Pretty soon, even the distant throb of the engines faded into the background and I could pick up sounds from the nearby island. The sound of the waves crashing on the shore. Occasionally animal sounds. And the sounds of insects and even some birds.

The whole time, I practiced breathing and tried to think of ways to contact the pink planet. I didn’t have any idea how to do that except by using my inflamed passions, but I just didn’t feel like kissing anyone at the moment.

“Did you know you are glowing?” Rachel thought to me as she sat down beside me. “I could feel you from our stateroom.

I just moved over a bit, inviting her to join me. She handed me a fresh cup of coffee and then sat down.

I thought I was falling asleep, but I could still feel the distant humming of the engines in the background and made a mental note to shut them down and run off the batteries for the day.

Ever so slowly, the first rays of the morning sun finally struck my face announcing the dawn of a new day and reminding me I was no closer to any answers.

“What’s everybody doing out here?” Jana asked, bombing the silence. I looked up and beside Rachel, Sarah and Samantha were both half asleep. Behind me, Anna and Fleur were stretched out and almost asleep also.

Of course, everyone started stirring, and I believed Rachel could feel my annoyance with her little sister’s disturbance, so she took Jana and said they would go start some breakfast. I yawned really big and then announced that I was going to turn off the engines and run the inverter.

“But the engines are off, sweetheart,” Rachel replied.

That’s when it hit me! I KNOW that I heard an engine running in the background earlier. I ran to the pilothouse and checked with Captain Alfred. No engines had been run since we shut them down last night. And the way the Bering was built, we could run for days off the inverters without starting the engines again.

I made my way back to the bow and stood as still as I could while I listened. With the dawn, it seemed that even more animals and birds were awakening. Finally, I ran to the cockpit and found a flashlight, a mask, a dive belt, and some flippers. Then excitedly lowered myself into the still waters of the cove.

The Cécile was anchored fore and aft in about ten meters of water. In anticipation of the coming hurricane, both anchor chains had been run out about thirty meters to help keep us from drifting. I followed the forward anchor chain down until I reached the anchor itself and turned on my light. The rocky base of the island was less than fifty meters away. But at ten meters down, there wasn’t enough light to see it clearly, so I began swimming that way.

One of the benefits, or gifts, I had discovered early on after the lightning strike was the ability to swim underwater for a long time without needing air. At the time, Roland and I had tried several experiments of both time and depth, but eventually abandoned them as I could see no useful application of the gift.

Now, I was wishing that I had more data, particularly concerning my limits! My testing with Roland had demonstrated no problems with staying submerged for an hour, so I just assumed that I had about fifty-five minutes left to complete my recon. I was also wishing for one of those dive watches Roland had told me about.

Unencumbered by scuba gear or other diving equipment I made my way towards the base of the island. Soon I could see two openings to what appeared to be caves. I estimated the smaller one to be less than three feet high but the other one was well over eight feet high, and both were deep enough beneath the surface to not be exposed, even at low tide.

I drifted to a stop and just allowed my body to settle to the sandy bottom as I studied the larger opening. I assumed that I was still at least ten meters deep, based on the amount of natural light that was shining through.

Now, as you know, sound travels faster through water than it does through air, so when I allowed myself to sink to the bottom and became still, I quickly began to ‘feel’ the regular thrumming vibrations in the floor of the sea.

By now, all sorts of thoughts were going through my brain. “Do I go in? What will I find? Are they hostile? Do I wait for reinforcements?” I thought to myself.

“Alex?” Rachel thought to me. “Where are you?”

“About 15 degrees off the starboard bow towards the cliffs and about ten meters down,” I thought back. “Would you ask the Officers if we have any scuba gear on board?”

“What do you want with scuba gear?” Rachel thought.

“I thought it might make it easier for you to enter this cave I found down here. A cave with definite sounds of an engine running.” I thought back.

“Captain Alfred says that it’s likely they have an entrance on the island. He said that you should come back and you all can make a plan,” Rachel said. “He also said that we currently have four tanks on board, but they are small ones.”

“Tell him we need more information before we can make a plan, so I’m going to check out the opening while I’m here,” I thought back as I began making my way towards the base of the cliff.

“Please be careful!” she urged.

“I will,” I thought back, thanking the Pink Planet for the ability to communicate with Rachel. It made the whole thing a little less scary. I mean I was still nervous. I was aware that my heart was racing, but I also knew that I didn’t feel the need to breath. At least, not yet!

I turned on my flashlight and slowly swam into the dark void.

It was like a tunnel. So I proceeded to explore. I swam about another fifty feet, giving Rachel short pieces of commentary about what I was seeing. Mainly nothing except the throbbing of what I was now sure was an engine of some kind. Suddenly, I came across a pair of round cylinders that resembled overly large scuba tanks and stopped. I tried to hold a mental picture of them in my head for Rachel, but she couldn’t make out what I was seeing.

Then I saw an odd movement in the water and looked up. Quickly I turned off my flashlight. Someone or something had just caused a bunch of loose rocks to fall from above. I moved to my left, away from the falling debris, backing into a small crevice. Then I waited as my eyes adjusted to the darkness.

I’d always heard that darkness inside a cave is darker than the darkest night because there is no source of light. Yet, as the minutes went by, I realized that I seemed to have some very limited visibility, like on a moonless night with just a sky full of stars. Overhead, I began to make out several dim sources of light.

My curiosity won out over my fears and I slowly kicked my legs. I was as far away from the lights as I could manage, feeling the wall of the cavern with my hand as I ascended slowly.

Long before I expected it, my head broke the surface and I automatically drew in a large breath. The air tasted dank and musty, but it was breathable and it took me a minute of heavy breathing for my lungs to relax. Meanwhile, my eyes adjusting to the two bright work-lights that were flooding the cavern on a shelf on the other side that appeared above the water. They were connected to a medium sized portable generator that was making the humming noise I had been hearing.

What I could see looked like a mining operation with two men with pick-axes chipping away at a small indention in the wall and another wielding a shovel and shoveling the debris into a wheelbarrow.

As I watched, the men with the pick-axes would pause frequently and pull out pieces of rock that they scanned with a small handheld machine. Mostly, they just pitched the rocks away, but occasionally, they pitched one into a metal crate sitting there, while the guy with the wheelbarrow would wheel the debris over to the edge of the water and dump it in. I relayed everything I was seeing to Rachel who was filling in everyone else.

“I can’t see how much they have in the chest, but they sure aren’t finding very much of whatever it is,” I thought to her.

“Alex?” Rachel thought. “Captain Tony said to tell you that a Coast Guard Research Vessel, The Joseph B. Duckworth, is approaching from the east, approximately 12 miles out. There’s also an unknown vessel, approximately 70 miles out, approaching from the northeast. He doesn’t know for sure, but doesn’t think it’s friendly.”

“Okay. Tell Captain Alfred to radio the Duckworth and request assistance immediately. Use my name and tell them to call the White House for confirmation. Also, tell them about the incoming possible hostile. Tell him NOT to describe our situation on the radio!”

“Hurry up!” shouted the man with the wheelbarrow. “They’ll be here soon!”

One of the men with a pick ax said, “Keep your shirt on. We’ve got more than enough here to prove we were right.” I relayed what I had heard to Rachel, then continued to search for signs of the archeological dig team.

I watched for almost an hour but knew that I needed to get out of the water soon. The problem was that the cave was so small, that there was nowhere I could hide. Finally, as I was about to head back to the Cécile, I heard one of the pick-ax guys ask, “What about the girl?”

“Go get her, we’re gonna take her back with us so we’ll have someone to play with on the trip home!” he said with a nasty laugh. The other man then entered another small cave that I hadn’t seen because the entrance was in the shadows of the work lights. Moments later he returned, half dragging a bedraggled female, bloody and bruised, and clutching to a small strip of blanket.

“Cuff her to the chest. We’ll load them both when they get here,” said the leader.

“Uh-oh! Houston, we have a problem,” I thought to Rachel. “They have a prisoner. A badly beaten female. No sign of any others. What should we do?”

“Kill those bastards!” was Rachel’s first thought. I waited to see if she had a second idea. A couple of minutes passed.

“Samantha is headed your way with a spare scuba tank. She’ll take care of the captive. Can you take care of the three men without killing them?”

“Can she bring something for me to secure them with?” I asked.

“She’s already headed you way,” Rachel thought. “And Alex? See if you can get some samples of what they were collecting. I love you.”

“Love you too,” I thought hurriedly. If Samantha was coming, I needed to take care of these guys pronto!

They had set aside their tools and were in the process of getting a drink of water when I zapped them. I was still getting used to doing that, so I wasn’t sure how bad they were hurt or how long they’d be incapacitated. Admittedly, I didn’t get a lot of practice, so it wasn’t all my fault.

It felt good to climb out of the water, then I rushed over to where the girl was chained to the crate. She moaned softly and one eye fluttered open. It was then that I realized I was naked except for a dive belt and my dive mask.

“Uh ... this is not what it seems,” I said slowly. “I’m here to rescue you!”

Talk about sounding like an adolescent dufus!

She cocked her one unswollen eye at me and held her hand still cuffed to the chest.

I scampered over to the man I had seen cuffing her to the chest and searched him for the key.

“Try looking around his neck,” she said with a definite English lilt. Of course, it was there on a chain. I removed the chain with two keys on it and took them to her. She grabbed the chain from my hand and twisted her body around to shield her nudity while she unlocked the cuff.

She eyed me suspiciously for a moment and then seemed to reconsider.

“What did you do to them?” she asked.

“Sort of tazed them,” I replied. “They aren’t dead, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I really don’t give a frog’s fart about them after what they did to me,” she said with a fierce tear in her eye. “But their pals are due back here any time.”

“Here. Drink some water,” I instructed as I handed her a bottled water out of the bad guys ice chest. I noticed it was plugged into the generator too. “Samantha will be here in just a moment. I hope she brought the first aid kit with her.”

She just looked at me, then drained the small bottle of water.

“I’m Alex. What’s your name?” I asked as I handed her another bottle of water.

“I’m Lilibeth, but everyone calls me Lily.” She said warily. “Who the fuck’s Samantha?”

“She’s one of my bodyguards,” I said without going into detail. Lily didn’t sound like the type of girl that made friends easily. “In fact, that’s her now.”

Just then, Samantha climbed out of the pool and headed straight for Lily. She was wearing her red one piece bathing suit, (ala Baywatch) with a scuba tank on her back and another slung over her shoulder. She had an underwater thruster strapped to her left arm, a med-pack strapped to her tummy, and her Glock in a waterproof holder in her right hand.

After a quick examination of Lili, she wiped the blood off her face and whispered quietly for a few minutes. Then she pulled out and handed Lily a one piece suit like hers, except green (turns out it was Sarah’s), and turned to me.

“What are you looking at?” she said heatedly. “Al said for you to come get the ROVThruster if you want to move the chest!”

The ROVThruster was an underwater thrusters/propulsion device that combined a propeller with a hydraulic motor enabling you to move small to medium sized loads underwater.

“And here are these,” she said tossing me six Zip-tie style handcuffs. I wondered where these had come from as I quickly secured the three men. One was beginning to stir so I zapped them all again and made for the pool. I was back at the fantail/swim platform in less than five minutes.

Captain Alfred was waiting and handed me a harness and the controller for the ROVThruster.

“The Joseph B. Duckworth is standing by, but has been ordered NOT to get involved if possible. We’re supposed to take the girl and the crate to Nassau at all speed. You’re to do your thing on any other ship that approaches us. We’ll be assigned an escort by the time we reach Nassau. Assume nothing and protect the girl and the chest at all costs,” he told me.

“What about prisoners?” I asked.

“Nothing was said,” he replied. “I’ll call for instructions. But we need to hurry. The unknown ship is less than 90 minutes away.”