Section 3 of 4 - The Dive Party
Part 9
Annette returned from the kybytz office and then dragged Um'Kai away from the party.
"There's a problem," she stated calmly. "Your equipment has been impounded."
"Impounded?" Um'Kai looked at her as if she was surely mistaken. "How? By whom?"
"Inspector Sykes," Annette said succinctly.
Um'Kai filled his great K'Stow lungs with a long in-take of air; his eyes flicked about, even briefly looking up to the sky. He let out a slow, deep purr.
"Sykes' brother-in-law," Um'Kai hissed, "is Chief of Duanos at the Kus'Hima Kah'Less Air-Hub. It is good that he can do his job so well."
He looked over at the group.
"That Kul'Ack scion of a targeta," Um'Kai cursed.
"I made other arrangements just in case there was a problem," Annette informed him.
"Good. That means ..."
All of a sudden, Um'Kai angrily fixed Annette in his eyes. Annette backed away from him. Um'Kai relaxed, not meaning to be aggressive, just momentarily overwhelmed.
"He's near; he's got his own private gyro that can lift fifty tunnes. I could not have found anyone else with that facility so quickly. At least, there was no one else that I could trust to do this quietly. And, he is sympathetic to your cause."
But, he's not me, Um'Kai thought to himself.
"The Kling authorities will be here definitely by mid-morning; so noon for a dive is not going to be possible. If we work all night, we can be ready by day-break."
Um'Kai was always impressed by Annette's ability to plan. When he had met Kul'inar's wife the shock of attraction was ... shocking to him, but then on meeting their daughter - the young Annette, he had been devastated by her presence. Being with her was like an endless torture, a source of pain that was the greatest feeling that he had ever felt.
He was caught like a physh, hauled out of the sea, gasping for the sea.
"I'll make ..." Um'Kai began to speak, but was silenced by a touch of her hand.
"I'll make the arrangements; you sleep and save your strength for the dive."
His eyes showed agreement and deference; Um'Kai knew that he could not hide from Annette what he felt for her; feelings that he could never reveal without causing dishonour.
"We dive at dawn," she said.
Part 10
The scent of iced ming-tao was in the air, rousing Um'Kai from his sleep.
Following a fragrance of hot water mist and essence’d tallow, Um'Kai showered then flicked off the warm water to receive a reviving cold blast on his skin.
Returning to the cot, he yawned and sipped at the ming-tao, looking out at the night time darkness. His hearing resolved the sounds of voices; orders being shouted and children cursing at getting up even earlier than normal, though they were also saying how much they enjoyed the change in regimen. Suddenly, a beating sound shocked the air.
Um'Kai wrapped a gown around himself and went outside.
On the two-century old, decommissioned but well-maintained observation platform, Annette was checking papers while talking into a hand-held multi-band radio.
Lights from the observation platform shone onto the stone beach below; while another area away from the kybytz platform had been cleared, lit-up and marked with white & red flares.
The beating noise came over head and Annette became more animated, she was making lots of movements with her arms and hands, though whoever she was talking to would not have been able to see her. The gyro - with its load swinging beneath, swung over the beach and a little way out to the sea.
Annette became more controlled; as the gyro descended; the load lowering as it did so.
Then, the load dropped, as the pilot let the cable-lock loose.
There was a loud splash.
Everybody stopped what they were doing and waited, looking out to sea.
The PT boat was intact, but that was not what they were concerned about.
Watching Annette watching the sea, Um'Kai knew why Annette was watching the sea.
Nothing happened out at sea.
Annette made a motion with one hand, palm down gently on a table as she spoke into the radiophone; the gyro swung back over the land, and touched down at the clearing.
Activity started up again.
Um'Kai went back inside and got himself ready.
The beach facilities were in disrepair following their abandonment one-hundred and fifty years ago. The spiral stairs and definitely the funicular were rusted beyond even an attempt at being used, and the natural pathway was too much of a risk; so the party abseiled down the cliff.
As he led the way, Um'Kai heard a clicking. He shone his torch towards the sound: He saw an ecky; an armoured creature about the size of his fist with a red shell, one of its pincers was about three times larger than the other; riding atop its carapace was a passenger, a small black shelled mollusc that provided a grooming service.
A showman ecky.
It bid them on.
Six inflatable rafts with six crew apiece rowed out to the boat, Um'Kai was grateful for the exercise helping to get his system going.
As he rowed, he looked at the cliff face that was just visible by the first dawn rays: Hundreds of millions of years in the making, formed by the remains of thousands (if not millions) of generations of billions (if not trillions) of kalkopods.
The cliff was a measure of time.
The party clambered aboard the boat using the rope-rung-ladders that had been put in place before the air-lift. Someone was already on board: Ka'men St'eiff of the Krokosile K'Stow.
"What are you doing here, you crazy krok? And, how?" Kryten asked.
"Got a surprise for you, cousin," Ka'men said indulgently.
The two went to the bridge. Kryten roared with laughter and embraced the figure.
"Cousin-Brother Ja'Layn von Ku'Layn of the Koretic Institute of the Klinzhai!"
"Greetings, Cousin-Brother. I got word about a mobilisation by the Kling Council to the place that you told me that you were going. I contacted Annette. And, she ... gave me my marching orders. Of course, you have not heard that from me."
"Heard what?" Kryten frowned at him.
Ja'Layn smiled. "I brought some equipment."
"So, how did you ..?"
"Some inflatable rafts and a small cabin: Adapt and Overcome. Ka'men and I did some prep on the way over; now with your crew working we should be ready for your cousin's drop in an hour: Which is when we can expect the first of my fellow Klinzhai to arrive."
The prep time was nearly up and all the equipment was as ready as it was going to be; Annette arrived on board with her father and Sim'nee Gor'kon, her fiancé.
Um'Kai felt sorry for Sim'nee as Annette nagged him about dropping the boat too early: They had been unable to use radar in case it attracted attention.
"My cousin has brought some ... cool stuff," Kryten said.
Ja'Layn strapped the pieces to Um'Kai. "Rad-clickers, depth gauge, tracker. The others you should only use in emergency, but keep the rad-clickers on at all times, they will warn you if you're getting close to a hazardous radiation source, even if it is just some left over ancient ordnance. Chances are this could just be a piece of space-junk, or at best an element rich chondrite that has been exposed to billions of years of cosmic radiation."
"Of course, if you do find any interesting chondrites ..." Kryten trailed off.
Um'Kai clicked his tongue at Kryten disapprovingly.
"Never mind," Kryten said, as if dismissing his own comment.
Dur'ee was helping Ne'moh into a diving-suit.
"You are the two eye-witnesses?" Ja'Layn approached the boys.
"Yes, sir," they said.
"Tell me where it went?" Ja'Layn asked them.
"Between those two swells, in the deep water on the horizon," Dur'ee said as he pointed.
"So, it flew across the field; big bang; you look up; and then it flies out to sea."
"Excuse me, sir," Ne'moh interjected. "We never said that it flew across the field when we saw it. We said that AFTER it had appeared, we THEN saw it fly across the field. We saw it appear."
"The report says that you saw it above you. It says that you saw it appear above you in the sky as you were running," Ja'Layn insisted.
"I believe that is probably a transcription error, sir. I did not write the report. The correct notation would be a circle with a point at its centre; the character has an alternate meaning of a koretic proton, but (in the context of the report that we gave) it means 'out of nowhere'. The full sentence should have read 'it appeared out of nowhere above us'." Ne'moh's voice took on a thoughtful manner, though he still sounded as a child.
Um'Kai said to himself, "Appeared?"
He lifted his eyes up as if looking into his own skull. "Then, if it LITERALLY appeared: it would not have needed to have left a track; as a meteor does as it burns-up on atmospheric entry. We've been trying to come up with answers that fit with how we already think about unidentified objects. We threw out the official reports but didn't pay attention to what YOU were actually SAYING to us.”
"It's something only a Kat'Anna would have picked up, sir," Ja'Layn commented.
"No, only a truly gifted Kat'Anna could be as precise as Ne’moh."
Ne'moh felt himself giggle inwardly, as Um'Kai's flattery bubbled up inside him, but he resisted showing emotion, instead maintaining his dutiful Kat'Anna exterior.
"The kybytz has Agricultural Council approval?" Ja'Layn asked.
"Yes, of course, it's a requirement," Kryten answered.
"So, it will have a Weather Station?"
"Yes, but ... Oh, I see: Changes in Atmospheric Pressure." Kryten palm-faced.
"If the object is as large as the boys describe it as being, there must have been some amount of air displacement. I'm assuming a volume of air that is greater than the actual object. And, if it was above the field, then it would also have been near the weather station," Ja'Layn theorised.
"Such a phenomenon would require a tremendous amount of energy," Um'Kai stated.
"Deep water masks radiation," Ja'Layn commented.
They all looked at each other in that way that the K'Stow do when there is no more to be said, but there remains a need to show that an understanding has been reached.
Um'Kai knelt before the boys.
"What are your families' names for you? What do they call you in private?"
"K't'inga, sir," Ne'moh said.
"K'Vort, sir," Dur'ee said.
"Very good names. I foresee that more than a basket shall be named after you."
"And, your name, sir? If I may ask?" Dur'ee ventured.
"Wharf."
"The bridge from the land to the sea. Or, the bridge from the sea to the land. Depending on the direction of the symbol," Ne'moh said.
The klaxon went off. "Dive stations in ten. All crew to stations," came Ka'men's voice.
Sim'nee, Kul'inar and Annette came over to Um'Kai; Annette embraced him.
She held his head in her hands. "You come back to me, you hear me? Even in death you belong to me. I will never let you go. Not even the sea and its creatures can have you."
"Best do as she says," Sim'nee advised.
Kul'inar tapped a tuning-fork against a bow-runner and then placed the end of the tuning-fork on Um'Kai's scalp: It hummed hollowly.
"Umm. That can't be good," Kul'inar commented.
"You're not funny, Professor," Um'Kai commented.
"I am funny: It says so on my doctorate; my thesis was in Humors."
"Rest assured, when I get back, I will kill you."
