Chapter 48

Looking up at the muck covered object sitting in the middle of the cavern, our flashlights and helmet lights doing their best but failing miserably with nothing being reflected with the muck covering everything, I was at a loss for words as the object sat there mute before us. From our position in the cavern we could see both the front of whatever this thing was as well as down one long side that was at least twice as long as it was wide with the narrow end looking like a wedge.

I was at a loss for words. From the time Sven and I started down the first tunnel the day before I was hoping what we had found was from some alien civilization. But being honest, I never expected to actually answer the question, "Were we alone in the galaxy?" Sure, my science classes back in school stated Nature abhors a vacuum, and if we as humans were the only being alive in the galaxy then there was a tremendous waste of space not only the galaxy but the universe.

I was still staring in disbelief when Thor, looking up himself, offered, "Deific, I have worked for you for nearly three years, I have seen things I never thought possible but time and again you have shown impossible does not relate to you." Moving his light around what I considered to be the bow of the ship, he added, looking at me again, "How is the hell did you find this thing and who do I have to kill to get a ride?"

"Well, to your first question I would say this was blind luck. With all this muck covering everything do we even know if this is really a ship?"

Sven who had walked around the ship and was now also standing in front, answered excitedly, "I've got a window over here!"

With Thor and me adding our light to where Sven was pointing his we could see that there was a window under the muck though at the moment the window was too high up for us to look inside. Knowing there was something under all the muck had all three of us looking for a way in with Thor finding what he was calling a loading door in the front as it was wide enough for a car or even a large truck to drive inside between the two protruding nacelles bracketing the door. Sven and I also located doors but these were on the long sides of the ship and the doors resembled the iris valves we had seen throughout the rest of the facility.

How long the three of us spent searching likely spots for the doors and wiping off the muck with our gloved hands, I don't know, it was Sven who interrupted my searching, offering, "You do know that this ship is Plutonium, don't you? What are we going to do when word of this gets out and Greece revokes your agreement? If you think for one moment they will honor their agreement with what this ship will bring on the open market."

"Well right now only the three of us know this thing is here, maybe we can keep it a secret long enough to figure out a way to move it to some place safe or if not the whole ship at least the technology, maybe we can trade off some secrets for some protection. Right now I would be happy just finding a way to open one of these doors."

Having heard Sven and my conversation, Thor added, "You say the three of us and I agree, we should limit how many people we tell, right now though I have to ask what you're going to say to Antonia? I would not advise hiding this from her even if she never comes down here, she needs to be included."

"I would never exclude her. She is my wife and she knows most of my other secrets even you two do not know. Since I trust her with those I do not have a problem telling her about this." Looking at my watch and seeing the time, I added, "In fact I think it is time for us to call an end to our exploration for the day and go eat. Then the four of us can sit down and discuss what our options are and where we go from here."

Waiting until after dinner to start talking about our discovery turned out to be impossible. After the three of us had only managed to climb back over the debris, our conversation turned to what would be needed to clean the facility. All three of us were still covered in the muck when we got to Antonia working in the light of the harbor with the sea door open. Our meeting was funny as Antonia squealed with laughter when she saw us, saying we looked like three boys who had spent all day playing in the mud and she would not kiss a muddy boy. She did suggest and was happy to offer her services in using the pressure washer on the three of us.

Mentioning the idea of using a pressure washer, made Thor comment on using it to clean the facility and the ship, Antonia picked up on Thor mentioning the ship and I informed her as to what we had found. Antonia believed nothing saying this was some plot to get her down into the tunnel. When we did not change our story there was mention of a wager and who would be fixing dinner for whom.

Dinner was late that night with Antonia fixing dinner after a long shower and tunnel crawl that saw her standing just as Thor, Sven and I had been hours earlier, asking, "Do I get to choose what to fix or do you three know what you want?" The meal ended up being two meals because by the time we walked out of the tunnel and cleaned up, not only had the sun set but the stars were out as well.

Sitting back after the plates were cleared left for the staff in the morning and Antonia joined us at the table, I asked, "Where do we go from here?" Seeing my companions confusion, I added, "I mean after we clean the tunnels and can see what the ship looks like. Sven was right in his observation the ship was plutonium, a secret like this is going to get out the only thing we don't know is when will the secret leak. So right now we have from this moment until the secret gets out, to figure out what we want to do with it."

Sven was the first to answer, saying, "We don't do anything different. We use the plans already have in place for Antonia's archaeological discovery to mask what you decide we should do about the ship. As to keeping the secret about the ship we need more men you can trust and the only group I think I would trust as this time are the guards who were with us in Korea and Japan, if anyone is going to be able to keep their mouths shut it would be them as they already view you as more than a man after what you did for them. The ones I would not include are the seventy-two new guards they may do what you ask but a secret like this would make people talk and that would not be good."

Thor was next up to talk and his words brought a laugh to the rest of us saying, "Like I said before, I am your man and all I want is a ride in that thing."

When the laughs ended, I offered, "Before we get to the point of offering pony rides to people there are a number of problems, issues, and questions needing answers."

"Like what?," Antonia asked.

"First how do we open the doors? We showed you the three doors we found and in trying to clear the muck we found nothing to let us in. Even if we did find a door controller or panel, there is no power so we have no way to use them. Second problem what if the ship had a leak from being immersed in saltwater for all those years, what are we going to find on the inside even if the ship somehow remained water tight. Another question: does the ship even work? If we use Antonia's earthquake as a basis for when the ship was marooned, the ship has been here for twenty-five hundred years immersed in saltwater covered by that muck.

"Then if all those problems are not enough to throw up my hands and quit, there is the last problem right off the top of my head, what language they spoke, Considering we are nowhere near any place that speaks English so I seriously doubt whatever language they speak is English."

Antonia smiled then, offering, "Well I think I will offer my services as the ship is in Greece and my specialty is ancient Greek civilizations so at least for one of your problems we at least have a start to a solution."

"Yes that is the start to one solution to one part of a very large problem," Sven offered. Then added, "Brian only covered the problems we have in the cave, what about problems outside of the cave? I already know already just cleaning the cave is more work than the two of us or even the four of us can handle: meaning we will have to bring in people to do the additional work making it possible for the secret to get out that way.

"Then there is the problem of being someplace surrounded by people who would think nothing of seizing the ship and this base. So the question there is do we stay here and fight or do we take the ship and everything else we can pull out of here and go find another country to hide us and give us the facilities and the time to figure out what we have. So the questions are who do we ask and what would we need to give up."

Making plans, the four of us talked long into the night to the point the eastern horizon was brightening for a new day. We probably would have continued except for the staff was moving around and we had agreed that no one would be around while we discussed what we had found. Antonia and I were of course the final arbitrators who we would entrust but I trusted Sven and Thor though after some of the other things Thor said throughout the night, I was thinking he was too involved with what the ship represented in his own mind, I would have to keep an eye on him.

With the staff awake we called our discussions to a close as we had what we thought of as a working plan in place with multiple cover stories. Using Antonia's archaeological find the first line of defense referring everything there as part of the "Find", we would stay with that as there were only two survivors from the accident who could talk about the doors and thankfully after paying them in full they were less than willing to say anything. Antonia also suggested she might bring them back to work with her again. I left that decision up to her.

Sven and Thor had their own problems as I put them in charge of security as well as figuring a way to move the ship if we needed. Antonia and I of course had our own part to play while Thor and Sven did the heavy lifting; our part was easy as we got to pretend to be a jet setting couple who had made a spectacular find of Greek and Roman artifacts as well as the harbor. Beyond our own people very few would be allowed onto the island to view the harbor for themselves, the numbers would be small and only friendly archaeologists would be invited.

All of that was the easy part; the hard part was trying to find a country willing to shelter us. We did have a list of a few but each of them had their own problems with Israel on the top of the list both for location and problems. Argentina was another possibility but their constant sniping at England had us holding back any real hope. Other Latin American countries made our list of possibilities but they had their own issues with drugs and political instability. By the early morning hours we were tired enough to consider the big three of America, Russia, and China and the suggestion was made I would talk to Mr. Able and get a feel if something was possible. I was less than hopeful about the United States but I liked the idea since I had not been home in over ten years and I was a bit homesick and my sister was getting married soon.

Later that day I started making phone calls with the first to Mr. Able who agreed to meet me on the island. He asked why and I put him off saying I didn't care to discuss care to discuss the topic over the phone. Saying he understood he offered that he could be at my island in two days. Not wanting to sound like I was in a hurry I agreed saying I had several other meetings to schedule and that I would see him in a couple of days. My other phone calls were just as brief with meetings arranged for every couple of days having Antonia and I traveling for nearly a month.

Antonia had her own part to play while we were traveling with her archaeological find she would get the chance meet with various history departments. My role during her discussions was to be her devoted husband would be bored while she talked archaeology and in my boredom would ask for a tour of the school with an emphasis in their technology research.

Then of course was the work Sven and Thor were handling while Antonia and I were gone and in my opinion they got the easier job. Thor's part was in addition to security for the island which he was already in charge of. He also took charge of finding a crew to clean the slime from the top of the facility to the bottom. For the manpower to do the cleaning all he needed to do was ask a couple of guys who had been with me the longest and without hesitation all of them volunteered.

Sven was just as capable suggesting we use a ship similar to the ones used to move oil derricks and other out sized cargo that needed to be moved to their final destinations though the project was incapable of moving the distance solo. Further questions on my part got me a history lesson about an American destroyer damaged in a terrorist attack in the Middle East years before being brought back to the United States for repairs aboard such a ship. The timing and renting such a ship was easy since they were so specialized they often had gaps in their service making our request possible once Sven worked out the other details such as how we were going to open the sea doors. We had the people of course to make it happen but other than being employees of a company I owned; I had no way to keep them from talking about what they would be seeing.

Before we reached the point of moving the ship, Antonia and I had our own trip and for Antonia's portion, our trip was good as not only did she make agreements to exhibits of what we had found but she was also approached for more charity work. I on the other hand did nothing but make a fool of myself as my diplomatic skills were lacking. Thankfully my prior history with Israel, France, and Argentina had them at least willing to talk. I was hesitant about Argentina as they were still talking war with Britain over the Falkland Islands again; while Israel had issues with an increasingly hostile United Nations for refusing their demands to retreat to their previous borders. In principle I agreed with the Prime Minister and her position about not giving up ground in a war Israel did not start but finished with the other countries crying uncle.

The one remaining country, France, also had issues including their pathetic economy going through yet another recession along with their ridiculous work rules made me question trying to work there, sure they promised exceptions but I was still concerned. The one issue that came out early and complicated my negotiations was what everyone was guessing as to why I was there. I was known as a gambler and although I now had a substantial and diversified portfolio I had never taken a personal interest in the businesses themselves, my sudden interest in technology raised more than a few eyebrows and led to a lot of guessing trying to direct me to various projects they had hoping I was going to invest in whatever projects they were working on not what I was looking for.

My meeting with Mr. Able went well though the favor I asked of him did not go nearly as well as I had asked him to try to work an agreement with the three major powers. The end result was simply more of the same by all three of them though China and Russia pretended to be nice. The Americans well, what could I say they were the same also if not more so after last year's smack down by the French courts trying to seize my Monte Carlo accounts. To say they were vindictive would have been an understatement as they even refused to grant a temporary truce so I could attend my sister's wedding.

The one bright spot during this time was Antonia's announcement she was pregnant again. Of course we celebrated with a side trip to Italy so she could tell her family and see her doctor. Thankfully for my mental state there was no public announcement of her pregnancy so we were able to finish our trip by quietly flying back to Atokos.

The concept of being quiet was relative of course because the island was anything but quiet with more construction going on over the hill from the main house with what looked like barracks. Wondering what had gone wrong as I had thought we had canceled the additional buildings, I was glad to see Sven and Thor waiting for me as the jet taxied to the now completed hangar and my other aircraft.

The explanation for building the barracks was not due to me for once but instead Antonia and her various archaeological meetings that were not limited to just a few people and were not secret, resulting in a large number of boats with large numbers of people all wanting to come see the new find from ancient Greece. Among the people seeking to come ashore were government officials who after being told to go away once tried to return this time in helicopters with police escorts. Their second visit proved to be as easy as their first one only instead of a polite refusal to their request to land; the helicopters were met at the airfield only now Thor had men with bigger guns than what the police carried, again they were refused permission and instead invited to leave. This happened several more time with higher government officials. When I asked why Thor and Sven never contacted me about the number of unwelcome visitors, they stated I had given them orders to keep everyone off of the island so they were only following orders.

Neither man was worried that they had done something wrong and I agreed thanking them for allowing Antonia and I to have a not so quiet vacation.

Wanting to get into the tunnels we did nothing more than drop our bags at the door and headed to the warehouse and the tunnel entrance inside. The tunnel now was very different as the lights we had left along the floor with extension cord were now all elevated hanging from one side of the roof. The harbor was the same as someone had worked hard not only setting up the wiring but also the lights allowing people to work easily even at night with the sea doors closed as it was too dangerous to leave them open with unscheduled visitors milling about.