The Gulf & The Horizon

By: Rick Beck
(© 2022 by the author)
Editor: Bob

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

beck@tickiestories.us

Chapter 25
Rejoinder

Clay had finally done what he'd been waiting to do. He was now processing the information. They'd only been diving on the reef once. He had no opinion to offer but they'd be there three more weeks.  

After walking the deck three times, he came back, stopped to get a cup of coffee and he looked at Bill's book. He started by reading the forward another professor at the university wrote. What they were looking for was going to become clearer once Clay read the book, but he put it down. Dinner was almost ready and he would take the book to his cabin before eating. Bill could put his journals back in storage.

“I'll read the book tonight,” Clay told Bill when he came into the galley to see about dinner.

“Your journals are fascinating. Now I have the foundation for what this summer's research is looking at. It's going to be an exciting summer for me.”

“Do you journal, Clay,” Bill asked.

“I write in my journal every day, whether or not I'm working. You taught me how to keep proper notes in one of your biology classes,” Clay said. “I don't remember much about it but your notes resemble mine. You can even read mine these days. I've come a long way.”

“You have,” Bill said. 

“We spent time on the value of taking good and accurate notes,” Bill said.

“What I've seen already is breathtaking. I can't believe the variety of sea creatures I've never seen before. I've been taking notes but nothing as carefully prepared as yours,” Clay said. “You are still the professor and I am the student.”

“You need to remember. Many of my entries were made long after the research trip ended. I went over each journal after having some time to process the entirety of the trip,” Bill said.

“There's one thing I'm unable to shake, Bill. I've seen the site and I've seen some of what is there. How could you not know that there was a separation in the reef you were studying. Something has destroyed part of the reef. What do you think is responsible?”

“You've spent six hours reading my journals and the only thing that comes to mind is a gap in the reef we're diving on?”

“You don't think that's important? You never mentioned it,” Clay said as Greek began putting plates of food on the table.

“I didn't see it before. We anchored differently last year. I was warned about the trench and it's strange currents. Because of the nature of the work I was doing, I worked in the one spot. The spot we visited today.”

“Who warned you about the trench?” Clay asked.

“Captain Hertzog. He pointed it out on sonar and warned of the currents. Because of it, I stayed on the front of the reef last summer.”

“How is it you came to be diving in this spot?” Clay inquired.

“After Mr. Sinclair's death, I received his briefcase full of notes and a map that had several spots marked. This was one of them and I decided to come here. Captain Hertzog seemed surprised I knew about this site. He mentioned bringing Mr. Sinclair here.”

“The captain knew about the trench and the currents from Mr. Sinclair's visit?” Clay asked.

“I imagine. Klaus knows a lot more about the oceans than I do,” Bill said. “I tend to take his word for things.”

“Yes, he seems like a well informed man. Working for Mr. Sinclair and being the captain of his yacht meant he saw the places Mr. Sinclair went to. He was a man with fingers in many pies. It's difficult to say how he knew of this site or why he found it so interesting.”

As everyone came in for dinner, Captain Hertzog appeared in the galley door. Clay waved him over to the table where they were eating.

“Just came in for some coffee. I'll be eating in my cabin tonight.”

“Captain Hertzog? How did you locate this reef?” Clay asked.

“It's part of some of John Sinclair’s records. He pointed out this reef and several others. At one time he entertained being part of the research in the Pacific. He intended to have his own research team until he got sick. Then, he searched for the marine biologist he'd leave his early work on ecology to.”

“You don't have those records? I'd like to see those,” Clay said.

“They are kept at the John Sinclair Library,” Bill said. “I'll arrange for you to see them when we return.”

“I'd love to see them now, while we're here,” Clay said.

“I came and went from the front of the reef last summer. Klaus anchored a bit further away and we came at the reef at the section where we worked earlier. It provided me with everything I wanted.”

“Except for some explanation of what happened to split the reef in two. You don't think John Sinclair had anything to do with that?”

“I'm sure I don't know, Clay. I steered his yacht. I took him where he asked to go. We were here for a few days, maybe a week, as I recall. That was a couple of years before his illness. That's seven or eight years ago now.”

“Nothing in the notes about the reef being split?” Clay asked.

“I think you're making something out of nothing. We'll take a look before we leave, Clayton,” Bill said. “Klaus, did Sinclair say anything to you about the condition of the reef?”

“I was the hired help, Bill. Mr. John Sinclair did not discuss his business with me. I brought him here because he apparently knew what was here. The man was world traveled. He had businesses in nine countries. His contacts and interests spanned the world. Why this spot and what had him diving here for a week, I can't say. I was the man who steered his yacht,” Captain Hertzog said. “I don't recall him saying much about what they were looking for.”

“They?” Clay asked.

“A German chairman of some board they both belonged to. A scientist from France we picked up in Hawaii, and a Chinese man who flew out to Mr. Sinclair's yacht after we were in mid Pacific. They had meetings on the stern after-deck where Mr. Sinclair met with friends and associates to drink. The Chinese man didn't drink,” the captain remembered. “He always drank ginger ale.”

 Clay listened and had nothing else to say.

“Thank you, Klaus. Didn't mean to hold you up,” Bill said.

Captain Hertzog backed away before going to get a cup of coffee.

“He knows something he's not telling us, Bill,” Clay said.

“Klaus? He doesn't. Why would he hold anything back?”

Clay had to think about that.

“Why would he talk about Mr. Sinclair’s drinking habits? Loyalty to John Sinclair might explain it. He knows more he isn't telling us.”

“Why do you say that? Klaus is a loyal employee of Sinclair industry.”

“He doesn't work for the university?”

“He goes with the boat. He was Mr. Sinclair’s captain,” Bill said.

“Good way for Singular’s people to keep an eye on you and your people,” Clay said.

“Mr. Sinclair gave this ship to the university for the purpose of research. He wanted me doing the research,” Bill said.

“How do the people in charge of Sinclair Industries feel about that?” Clay asked.

“I rarely hear from them,” Bill said. “I do my research is all.”

“You can bet they hear plenty from Klaus Hertzog,” Clay said.

Bill looked at Clay without understanding what he was saying.

“Captain Hertzog may have been the man who steered John Sinclair's yacht, but he's a man who hears everything. He's always observing what is going on,” Clay said. “He knows more than he said.”

Bill was made uncomfortable by talk of intrigue. He was a direct man and he expected people to be as direct as he was. While Clay was certainly being direct, it wasn't a direction Bill was going in.

“I'm here to do follow up on last year's research, Clayton.”

 “Bill, I don't know what to say about what I just read. You went home and processed what you'd seen last summer. Once you did that, you went over your journals to reflect what you found. I've taken one dive on the reef in question and I've read your notes. It is going to take me a little time to come up with an opinion. Maybe after a few dives. I'll see more of what's there. We'll talk it over as the summer progresses. I hope you weren't expecting an immediate opinion.”

“At the summer's end. As your participation is coming to an end, I was hoping you'd offer me a preliminary opinion. Of course we'll talk frequently over the next year. There is no rush. We want to take the time to read the signs correctly. We can't afford to be accused of being careless.”

***** 

The Scorpion was rolled out the morning Clay, Bill, and Logan were scheduled to take the second dive on the reef.

“Why can't I go. I need to get a lot more photographs of the reef from inside the Scorpion,” Logan said, not wanting to miss a chance to go for a ride in the submarine.

“Clay and I need to take a look at something we've found. We need to be able to see it, talk about it, and decide what to do about it. We don't need a distraction.”

“I suppose that means I can't go either?” Dylan said more than asked.

“No,” Clay said as Dolf swung the Scorpion over the side and set her down in the water. He came off the catwalk to removed the cable.

Bill drove and he settled the Scorpion in the break between the two sections of the reef he'd been diving on.

“How could I have missed this?” Bill asked.

“You weren't looking for it. You came at the reef from the front. That second piece is hundreds of feet away. That means there was a significant piece of reef that's no longer living here.”

“Could it have died?” Bill asked.

“Not without evidence. It's like someone took a bulldozer to the bottom at this point,” Clay said. “It's flat and nothing is on the floor to tell us what was here or what happened to it.”

The pod sat. Bill looked at both halves. It might not have been a perfect fit after how many of thousands of years ago it broke apart, but you could see that it was once one reef.

“Can we go up and ride over the two halves?” Clay asked.

“Sure,” Bill said.

It wasn't the two halves Clay wanted to see. He wanted to see what was behind the reef. The back of the reef was more murky. Clay couldn't see the floor of the Pacific behind the reef. A few dozen feet below the Scorpion's route was invisible because of the blackness.

Clay would need to dive if he wanted to see what was between the reef and the trench. It wasn't something Bill had planned.

They both were looking for evidence of what might have happened but the ground between the two halves didn't reveal anything to tell them how the two halves got where they were.

Bill put the Scorpion in motion and he set it down in front of the part of the reef he didn't know was there. The new portion of reef was larger and wider than the one Bill was there to dive on. Otherwise, they were basically the same. Bill lost nothing by not knowing the reef had been split into two halves, but it made Clay wonder.

“We could go behind it. Look for evidence there,” Clay said.

“I remember Klaus telling us that there are serious currents near and around the trench, Clay. I don't want to put the pod at risk. This afternoon you can see what it is you want to see,” Bill said. “We'll leave enough time to take a look.”

Clay needed to see what was behind the reef. He didn't intend to get near the trench. He merely wanted to take samples from the floor and by having them analyzed it could reveal something.

Bill did take the pod along the full front of the two halves. He saw how he approached the reef the year before and why he'd never discovered the breach or the second half. His focus had been on one spot in the half of the reef he dove on frequently last summer. He wasn't looking for a second half to the reef.

The plan was to study the same part of the reef he researched last summer. The second half of the reef and the breach was another matter all together. He didn't want to be distracted from the reason why they were there. It would be easy to get preoccupied by how and when the breach took place. That was for another research trip and for another research team. 

Once they returned to the Horizon, Clay went to his cabin to finish reading the book Bill had written about his research in 1982. As he suspected, he learned more about the way Bill thought than he had gleaned from his journals. Bill put it all together in the book. He wrote his conclusions and what he thought he would find in 1983, when he returned. It was a to be continued book. Bill's mind was far sharper than his own mind. He'd been at it much longer than Clay.

His college professor was thorough. Most people, people who had no scientific background, might not appreciate the finite thought that went into Bill's research. Clay understood why Bill didn't want to become distracted by peripheral considerations.

Other marine biologists, environmentalists, would read his words of warning in those pages and see the relationship between what was going into the world's waterways and what was going to happen because of it.

Lunch was quiet, except for Logan and Dylan talking about the film that had been taken and the filming that was being planned.

Bill and Clay had little to say. Clay's mind was on Bill's book. Bill's mind was on the work he'd come there to finish. They ate without commenting on the reef and Logan and Dylan did not miss the fact that there was no discussion of what had been seen that morning. It might not mean a thing and it might say a lot about whatever it was they weren't talking about.

“I haven't been diving all day, Bill. Maybe this afternoon?” Logan asked.

“Haven't made up my mind if we'll take the Scorpion out for one more trip today or if we'll suit up and dive. We'll leave about two. I have some things I need to take care of in the lab,” Bill said.

“Count me in,” Logan said.

Dylan said nothing. His father had something on his mind and if he asked him if he could go, he knew the answer. He didn't ask. It was only the second day and they were still exploring the reef.      

Logan got to see the split in the reef. He had no thoughts of his own on the subject. It was what it was. He didn't go behind the reef, although he watched Clay examining the face of where the two reef were once joined. Clay spent some time looking at the space behind the reef where the opening provided a good view.

At some point Clay disappeared. One minute he was in the breach and the next minute he was gone. Logan was still learning how to use the new camera and he did get distracted. The next time he saw Clay, he was coming back around to the front of the reef.

Logan couldn't help but wonder what Clay was doing behind the reef. The next time he got near that breach, Logan was going to stick to Clay like glue. It was obvious Clay was curious about what was back there, and so was he.

Clay didn't stray far or for long. He was there to assist Bill. If he did a lot of wandering on his own, Bill wouldn't like it. For the time being Clay would do what Bill expected him to do. In the final week on the site, while Bill was preoccupied with work in his lab, Clay would make several dives on his own. He intended to find out what was behind the reef besides the trench.

They were back at a little before four. Clay handed his equipment up to Dylan and Logan and Bill waited to be on deck to get out of their gear. By that time Clay had disappeared into the ship. Dylan came back to take their gear to the equipment locker.

“Dolf, go ahead and put the Scorpion away. We won't be using it again today,” Bill said.

Captain Hertzog stood on the catwalk watching. He said nothing.  

“Good as done,” Dolf said, going right to work.

Bill leaned on the railing to watch as Dolf lifted the pod out of the water and set her down on the sled. Five minutes later it disappeared inside its compartment.

Bill was still leaning on the railing. He was thinking about the breach. He should have been thinking about his research.

He had more to think about than he had before the latest discovery. He could let it go and try to leave some time to figure it all out once the real work was done, but Clay couldn't. Did they really need to figure out how the reef got that way or was their time better spent analyzing the data to do what they came to do?

Captain Hertzog had stepped off the bridge and onto the catwalk to watch Dolf putting the Scorpion away. He saw Bill deep in thought.  Did he interrupt the thinking man to find out what he was thinking about or did he leave the busy scientist alone?

Klaus Hertzog wasn't comfortable answering the young scientist’s questions. There were things best left alone. This was one of those.

It was his ship. It was his job to know what was going on.

“Ahoy, Matey,” Captain Hertzog said loudly.

“I saw you, Klaus. I wasn't ignoring you. Well, I was but it's what we've found a few dozen meters from the reef I'm here to study that's on my mind at the moment,” Bill said.

“Come up here and tell your captain what you've found. I'm all ears,” Captain Hertzog said, wanting to know.

Bill left the railing to climb up to the catwalk.

“You interested in a cup of coffee, Bill?” the captain asked.

“Ah, yes. I could use a cup of coffee,” Bill said, following Klaus on to the bridge.

“I'll give you a cup of wonderful brew but you've got to tell me what has you so deeply in thought on such a beautiful day.”

“That's a deal, Klaus,” Bill said sitting in one of the deck chairs.

A half hour later after jotting down some notes and freshening up, Clay returned to the deck where he last saw Bill. It was time that they talked about what they'd found. It was odd enough for Clay to want to write about it in his journal. He didn't know what it meant and he wanted to compare notes with Bill to see what he concluded.

With the deck empty except for a few sea birds. Clay looked beyond the starboard side of the ship. Sitting in the water a hundred or so feet away was Tangle. Clay watched him for a few minutes while Tangle watched back.

“What do you know that I need to know, Tangle?” Clay asked. “Why are you staying so close to us? Are we your family now? What are you trying to tell us?”

In a sudden burst of energy, Tangle launched himself into the air, turned upside down, diving out of sight while chattering loudly.

“Clay, I'm on the bridge. You ready to talk?”

“Over coffee. I need a cup. Come to the galley when you're finished on the bridge,” Clay said.

Heading down the passageway for the galley before Bill could invite him onto the bridge, Clay didn't want to talk in front of Captain Hertzog. He knew more than he was saying and he didn't want him to know what was being found on the bottom.

The galley was empty that time of day, but Greek was always preparing something or other. Clay poured his coffee and went to sit at the table where they always sat. Bill would want to talk and he wasn't sure how much to say.

Greek reached for the old pot of coffee and replaced it with a new pot. Greek put out a plate of chocolate chip cookies with walnuts. The smell of those cookies was incredible. Clay was always hungry.

“You look deep in thought,” Bill said, pouring himself coffee.

“I'm not accustomed to processing so many new things. The reef has a divide and it doesn't show how that happened. It looks like something came through the middle of it and either destroyed a large chunk of it or it shifted somewhere we haven't found yet,” Clay said.

Bill sat down with one cookie in his mouth and two in his left hand. He chewed and considered what Clay was saying.

“Tangle followed us this afternoon. He was watching from the starboard side again. I'm not sure why he's following us. Dolphin follow us in the Gulf but not for very long. They find something more interesting to do after a while. What are your thoughts on this?”

“Tangle, he's happy to be alive. The men on this ship are responsible for that. I imagine he's bonded with us in some way. He'll find something more interesting after a while,” Bill said.

“I think so too but it's extraordinary behavior. He's not simply following us. He's letting us know he's there and he knows who we are. Do you think other sea creatures think in that way, Bill?”

“I don't know in what way. I suppose Tangle got a good look at Logan and you. He obviously recognizes you. When he bumps the pod, it's always the passenger side. He doesn't bump my side. I think he understands one of you will be sitting in the passenger seat. Maybe he's right-handed and favors the right side.”

“Porpoises don't have hands,” Clay reminded Bill.

“You know what I mean. He always goes to the right,” Bill said.

“You think he's reasoning that out and it's his way of saying hello to us,” Clay said. “Gives us a little bump?”

“That's a bit more than I've concluded but how do we know if he is reasoning this. What do we know? What can we prove? Not much,” Bill said.

“What happened to the reef?” Clay asked.

“Earthquake? A major storm, maybe a tsunami or some force that we don't even know exists?”

“There is a large gap between the first reef we found and the new piece we found. There is no sign of any reef being present in that gap. Could the new reef be just that? It developed on its own, Bill?”

“I don't think so. If they both developed on their own, they'd have joined together by this time. No, that was one reef. Something went through there that created the cap,” Bill said.

“Animal, vegetable, or mineral?” Clay asked.

“Doesn't appear anything was ever growing there. Animals would leave trace evidence. If something had grown there and died, we'd see evidence. We don't have enough information. We need to add an afternoon trip in the Scorpion to our morning dive. I want to take a closer look. See how far the new reef extends, Clay.”

“I was hoping we'd find an excuse to use the pod more often,” Clay said. “What I really want to do is take a gander at what's between the back of that reef and the trench. We've been looking at the breach in the reef for a couple of days and I've gone along that other section of reef for quite a ways. There's no difference in the two sections of reef. Maybe one reaches higher than the other.”

“Klaus says there is a likelihood of strong currents emanating from the trench. I don't want to put the Scorpion at risk, Clay.”

“We're diving in eighty feet of water. There are risks, Bill. I think the answer to the breach in the reef is directly related to the trench.”

Bill's fingers drummed. He knew Clay was right and he wanted to see behind the reef as well. He wasn't sure he wanted to take the submersible too close to the abyss.

The next morning's dive kept Logan busy in his film lab and Dylan stuck close to him while he learned how to use the equipment. Developing the film was complicated. It wasn't an apparatus Dylan would need to operate, but he found it interesting.

They told Dolf to get the Scorpion ready once the morning dive was done. They decided to go to the reef at about three that day. In the meantime, Bill and Clay spent time in the galley drinking coffee and talking. Dylan sat in the galley for a while and then went to the film lab.

Captain Hertzog came out on the catwalk to watch Bill and Clay climb down to get into the Scorpion. Dolf stood on the platform and released the leash as Bill lowered the bubble top. As the submersible began moving away from the ship, Dolf climbed back on deck.

For the first time they settled into the breach, examining one side of what Bill considered to be the main reef. When they examined the other half of the reef, it left no doubt they were once joined. Bill stood looking at the separated portion he hadn't known was there.     

What could so neatly cleave an object that size?

Over coffee in the galley, they had a conversation that never thought they might have. They'd both seen the two halves of the reef Bill was studying. The mystery of how the reef became two halves remained.

“Clayton, I have several weeks of work to do here. That comes first. It's the purpose of this research voyage. I will leave enough time for us to take a look behind the reef all the way to the trench,” Bill said. “I have no idea how the reef got that way.”

Clay had gotten more consideration from Bill than he expected. They'd still only ventured a few dozen feet behind the two sections of reef. What seemed to Clay to be empty, and eerie, had fired up his now overactive imagination. The prospect of learning the reef's secret satisfied Clay's curiosity for the moment.

“No force on earth I know of could do that,” Clay added.

Bill didn't say any more. They'd spent the day investigating something that didn't add a thing to his research. They'd keep up with their dives, collect the information Bill was after, and they should leave a day or two to chase rainbows, after the research was done.

The weather conditions remained favorable for daily dives. The Scorpion stayed in her compartment. The SCUBA gear allowed them to collect specimens from the third day forward. There was no shortage of species to gather on this reef.  

They took two dives the third day and Logan went with them on the early dive and he spent the afternoon developing the film he took in the morning. He was anxious to compare the quality of the underwater footage he'd taken so far.

Captain kept an eye on the radar and sonar and he monitored the weather forecasts from Guam. The seas continued to remain calm and the storms in the area never reached the Horizon.

Rough seas did have them canceling one afternoon dive at the end of the first week, but they spent the time in the laboratory making notes on what their early visits to the reef had yielded so far.

*****

To be continued...

Posted: 10/07/2022