Far From The Sea We Know (23 page)

“If that includes me, I’m not feeling it
back.”

“I know,” he said and then looked truly sad
for a moment.

“Forget it,” she said. “You still haven’t
told me why all this now?”

“I’m putting it as simply as I can.”

“No need to dumb it down.”

“It’s hard to put into words. I just have
this certainty that I am where I am meant to be. As if everything
is part of a play, the
one
play, and I just play my part.
All is exactly as it should be, and I’m free. It’s a dance, and I
dance.”

“Then I suggest you widen your repertoire.
You’ve been about as lively as a garden ornament.”

“Please drop the cynicism, at least for a
while.”

“Oh, so all is just as it should be except
me.”

“No! Not at all, it’s just that I wish
you…Just listen to me, please. I am where I am meant to be, and so
are you!” He paused and added, “With me, us together…”

She had been looking at the newly arrived
ships when he said this, but she turned and held his glance for a
moment, looked for even a trace of condescension. Just one flicker
would have been enough, but he looked back at her with no more
guile than a child lost in the forest.

“All right,” she said. “But aren’t you
concerned at all? I mean, of all this, everything we seem to have
set loose?”

“We didn’t set it loose.”

“Okay, it just happened to us, ‘it’ meaning
stuff totally outside the known laws of physics. And I’m even
getting used to it. But the way everyone is acting?”

“Not an act. They’re just becoming
themselves.”

“Really. Aren’t you the least bit
skeptical?”

“Of what needs to be questioned, of course.
But if it’s sunny, I don’t doubt the light or the warmth. I don’t
need to analyze the sun to feel the sun, to know the sun directly.”
He gazed up at the sun, but at least he had his eyes closed. “It’s
a relationship now. I feel the sun’s reality and my place with it
so immediately.”

He turned back to her and opened his eyes.
“This is the way life is meant to be, that’s what is important. I
don’t know why this has all happened now, and I do hope to know,
but it would be wrong to make an obsession of trying to find
out.”

“I never suggested we should.”

“What has happened to us should be embraced,
not shunted aside because it’s new and, therefore, a threat.”

“I’m with you on not denying. It just
bothers me that no one is questioning the validity of their
experience and the source. I include you. It should be a cause for
concern.”

“Why?”

“Because Ripler was just as convinced that
he was right as you are now. Being convinced beyond all doubt does
not make what you believe true. Think about it! All the people out
there who
just know
they’re right, half of them
self-righteous creeps who seek to bend the world to their will even
if it breaks and do not hesitate to destroy those who do not agree
with them. Listen, I don’t really want to go into that now.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment, then,
“Sure. Some other day.”

“A little unfair, I know, since I brought it
up.” She gave him a hug and looked up into his eyes, which somehow
seemed darker brown than ever.

“What do you say we have another look?” She
gave a quick glance toward the bridge.

“The transceiver?”

“No one but Andrew seems to be there now,
the students are enjoying their group grope, so now’s as good a
time as any.”

His answer was barely audible. “Maybe
another time. I was going to kind of just sit for a while.”

“Sit? Like meditate or something?”

“I just sit and let everything stop for a
while. My thoughts.”

“Then enjoy your holiday. I’ll see you
later.” She smiled, but stalked off a little annoyed. No matter,
she thought. Let him be, let him have some time to find his
footing. Let him see for himself if what he believes he’s found is
real.

As she entered the bridge, Andrew gave her a
nod and said, “Morning. Come to visit me or our new addition?”

“Both,” she said.

A new array of equipment had been installed,
the wires cinched together with cable ties in an attempt to make it
neat, but it was still clearly a jury rig. Most of it was gathered
around the transceiver on the floor.

“Emory adapted a stereo microscope and
rigged it to get a closer look,” Andrew said. “Set it up with
video, but right now only hooked into the monitor down in C-lab.
Will be spliced into the monitors here after the meeting. That
black box next to the transceiver can detect electrical fields in
living organisms. Didn’t have much else that would be of use.”

“Do you think this meeting the crew is
having is wise?” she asked.

Andrew gave a slight nod. “They seem to be
coming back together. If a meeting helps, good enough reason.” He
handed her a large magnifying glass. “Have a look.”

She took the magnifier, knelt down, and
brought the glass up to see. What looked like roots in all kinds of
colors were emanating from the transceiver, growing right before
her eyes. How could that possibly be?

“Penetrating steel deck plates,” he said.
“Feel the heat?”

She put her hand down. The deck felt just as
hard as always, but unaccountably warm. She said, “At the rate they
are extending, you would have to say this was more like animal
movement than plant growth.”

“May not be plant or animal,” he said.

“Then what? Some kind of quasi-life? I’ve
never heard of anything that can grow through steel. More to the
point, damn it, how could a transceiver send out roots?”

“Don’t know.”

“They’re beautiful,” she said, “the colors,
the way they weave in and out like some super fine tapestry, but
many dangerous things use bright displays of color as warning
signs.”

She didn’t touch the roots but ran her hand
along the cables from the microscope. They jacked in to an AV
junction box underneath the bridge console along with other
instruments.

“I hope they’re backing up everything
they’re recording,” she said, “because they may never get another
chance.”

“Malcolm and Emory? Before we sailed, they
put in enough storage to hold the Library of Congress.”

She got to her feet. “This is ten levels
beyond incredible. We should be staggering around with our minds
blown.”

“Some are,” he said, pursing his lips as he
glanced at the old brass compass in its gimbals. She knew he had
never done much in the way of analyzing data and had sometimes been
faulted for it. Yet she had always trusted Andrew’s intuitions and
pure observational skills more than anyone else’s, even her
father’s. And Martin would be the first to say the same.

Andrew tapped a few settings on the
monitoring equipment to get readouts. “We have little to go on so
far. Not really kitted out for this kind of barbecue.”

“Any idea how this could happen?” she
asked.

He tapped another screen a few times and
shook his head. “No one saw it arrive, including me. The whales had
just disappeared. I’m looking at the tracer screen and the
transceiver blip is suddenly dead center. I turn around and it’s
just there where you see it.”

“Are we sure it’s really the same one?” she
asked.

“As much as can be,” he said. “Becka checked
the serial numbers. This seems to be the tag we attached to Lefty,
a young bull in the same grouping that Matthew originally saw from
the
Eva Shay
. Need to check a few more things to be dead
cert.

She looked down at the transceiver. “The
casing’s getting all mixed up with the steel of the deck plating.
Like they’re melting together.”

“Casing’s plastic,” he said. “Normally, that
would be impossible.”

She nodded. “And the tendrils. You kind of
wonder if there’s wire or something inside them. They’re all
heading over to your navigation gear. Trying to connect?”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

Penny put her hands to her ears.

“If one more person says, ‘that’s what I was
thinking,’ I’m going to open up a psychic hotline.” She shook her
head and looked up at him. “I was hearing that all day yesterday,
every time I tried talking with the crew. Like they think they’re
reading thoughts.”

“People feel more connected.”

“For all we know, the behavior change is
part of a strategy for getting us where whatever’s behind all this
wants. I’ve seen a snake fascinate a small bird. They really do
this, and the bird just sits there mesmerized. Maybe it feels
great, maybe it feels one with everything, but in another minute,
it’s making a slow trip to snake stomach. Still alive.”

“Doubt that’s what is happening here,”
Andrew said.

“I don’t really know, but that’s the point.
No one knows, but many of the crew act like everything is just
fine. Disconcerting. I find it even more disconcerting that no one
else seems concerned.”

Andrew looked thoughtful. “Crew’s been
through a lot. Especially Matthew.”

“I know,” she said, “but he’s become
insufferable, like Moses down from the mountain, the prophet of the
true word.”

“Wait it out. Only advice I can give.”

He was right. Yet, when she looked at the
transceiver working its way into the ship like a parasite, she was
not comforted.

“Do you think it’s wise to probe the
transceiver, if we can still call it that? We really have no idea
what we’re doing and what consequence we may unwittingly
trigger.”

“Point taken,” he said, “though being
excessively cautious has its own risks. Did tell Malcolm and Emory
no cutting or probing.”

“Remember their adventure with the scrambled
eggs? Okay, I know they’re good techies and all, but watch
them.”

“Watching everyone,” he said. “Emory now
seems in surprisingly good shape. More relaxed around people.
Malcolm’s more relaxed about being Malcolm.”

She smiled and didn’t say any more for a
while. She looked at the horizon and tried in her own way to let
all thoughts go. But she couldn’t.

“There are risks in examining it, no matter
how careful we are,” she finally said. “Risks that can’t even be
calculated.”

“Spoke with Chiffrey last night before he
went to that frigate over there to report. They want to move some
of their own people over here.”

“You told him no, of course.”

He shrugged. “You were talking danger a
minute ago, so why not?”

“I was simply urging caution, not suggesting
we go to war.”

“He claims he wants to bring over
scientists,” Andrew said. “Not Navy SEALs.”

“You can’t trust that,” Penny said.

“Trained researchers,” he said. “Experts in
other fields.”

“Well, I don’t know the name of the field of
study that has inanimate objects coming to life as its province.
His ‘experts’ are probably just glorified technicians, but they’d
want to take over….” She saw his smile. “Wait, you never intended
to let them onboard.”

“Not while we’re at sea.”

She caught the implication. “Are we heading
back?”

“We have a boatload of students who got more
trip than they signed on for. Some are bound to want to go
home.”

“Most of them seem to be enjoying it. In
their own way, at least. And the whales?”

“They could be anywhere. Not going to find
them unless they want to be found. I won’t be a stalking horse for
Chiffrey and his people. Too much like a hunt.”

“Well, I’m with you all the way on that, but
Chiffrey is right about one thing. At least we have hard evidence
now.” She stared again at the mutating transceiver. “This thing
makes mush of however we thought the world works. I guess he was
right about that as well.”

She gazed at the transceiver as if waiting
for it to tell its secrets. But Andrew didn’t wait. “Still doing
its job, you think?”

“What?” Then it hit her. “You mean
we’re
tagged now? Being tracked?”

“Could be,” was all he said.

“If that’s true, shouldn’t we…” Her voice
trailed off. She had already given her best argument why they
should
not
disturb it.

“We don’t know,” he said. She waited, but he
remained as silent as a monk. He checked the heading on the compass
again, an act that must be as natural to him by now as breathing. A
gleam of light, like a spark of white fire, caught her eye. Hanging
above the center port window over the compass was a string of tiny
white shells interspersed with bits of silver. Penny knew it well,
but hadn’t seen the necklace since she was a small child. She had
always assumed it lost at sea along with the woman who had been
Andrew’s wife, all those years ago. Valentina, the namesake of this
ship they depended on to keep them safe on a now uncharted sea.

The necklace gave her a strange pang of
gladness, almost hopefulness. But like a rainbow fading into
clearing air, the feeling was subsumed by the old ache of loss for
Valentina, a loss they each shared in their separate ways.

“A course for home,” Andrew said. He might
have guessed her thoughts as he followed her glance to the
necklace, because he added, “…and a star to steer her by.”

“So soon?” she found herself saying,
surprised by her own words.

“There may be stops along the way. ‘Ports of
opportunity’ in the old way of speaking.”

She laughed. “Still a pirate at heart.”

She knelt down one more to time to get a
closer look at the transceiver. “Will you tell Chiffrey you suspect
that thing may be tracking us now?”

“No.”

“He’s sure to figure it out.”

“Counting on it.”

Penny left Andrew on the bridge and went off
to ponder his theory. Maybe something out there did watch, and
listen, and who knows what else. The expanse of the ocean all
around her suddenly seemed to close in as if they were in some
faked zoo environment. It was getting to her, being cooped up on
the ship. There was no way to really move around. She wanted to run
a canyon trail, baking in the sun, and dive into a rushing river at
the end.