I was a bit late getting up this morning, which really didn’t matter since there wasn’t really anything for me to see or do yet. We’re still relatively close to the Central American coast, so we’re unlikely to find something too different for my research. I would have liked it if we had headed more south towards the Galapagos, but our priority was to get to Polynesia. We were scheduled to hit the Galapagos on the way back.
We did drag a net for a while and collected a random assortment of sea life, but nothing particularly noteworthy. We took our DNA swabs and tossed most of them back in, but we kept a few out to hand off to the cafeteria staff. I’m pretty sure no one will object to some fresh tuna.
Later, I made my usual rounds of the ship. Most of us on the academic side had little to do, so most of us were lounging around on the deck or hanging out in the cafeteria; the only place on the ship big enough for any number of us to get together at one time.
Well, I suppose there is space in the cargo bays. Or would be, if it wasn’t full of food and Dr. Parimala’s buoys.
I mean, Atiya’s buoys. She keeps getting on me for being too formal around her. I did find her, Mitch, and another of her students on the aft deck.
They were standing next to a track that reached across the railing and over the ocean below. Mitch was lifting one of those buoys onto it.
The buoy itself was only about the size of a propane tank, like the one you would attach to a backyard grill. But it had a long pole extending from each end. One was literally just a length of pipe with a weight at the end; designed to make sure the thing would float upright in the waves. The other was the antenna that would beam its data to a satellite somewhere overhead.
Atiya saw me and waved in my direction, but kept her attention on her student. She was a thin, blonde woman currently engrossed in something on the tablet she carried. Atiya was reading something off the buoy and relaying it to her, and she entered it on the tablet. When she seemed satisfied, she nodded and Mitch released the buoy. We all watched it roll down the track and drop into the ocean below, then waited as the woman rechecked her tablet.
“Signal acquired,” she said, finally. “Seventeen on-line.”
“Great!” Atiya clapped her hands together. “We’ll drop another in about 12 hours.”
The two nodded and headed back forward. Atiya came up to me.
“Kalen!” she said, giving me a quick hug. “I didn’t expect you to come looking for me again so soon!”
I shook my head. “No, not that. I was just doing a walkaround of the ship and found you. So… what’s up?”
She made a false frown. “And here I thought you were looking for me.” She let out a mock sigh. “Well, we were just dropping off another of our grav buoys. We plan to drop about two a day between here and whatever island we’re going to.”
That surprised me a bit. “We have a specific destination in mind?”
She nodded. “Yes. Of course we do. Dr. Stepherson had some particular place he wanted to go and, since you and I just need to be somewhere in the South Pacific, Captain Anderson decided to make a straight-line course to there.”
“I would have preferred a more random course; one that would have covered a greater area.”
“Yeah, me too. But that is the plan on the way back; we’ll zig-zag across the Pacific to cover as much territory as we can. But for now, we’re heading to one place.”
“Where is that?”
She thought for a moment. “Panama? No, that’s obviously wrong. Some island with a name like that though. Dr. Stepherson would know.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. I’ve been trying to talk to him, but he doesn’t seem to want to talk to me.”
She laughed. “He was expecting Dr. Anderson to be here. The two of them are close friends, so I think he is a bit irritated at you for taking his place.”
Well, that explains a few things, I thought. “Oh? I didn’t know.”
“You need to spend more time at the staff dinners.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Half of academia is politics, you know. Actually, more like 90%.”
“So I’m learning.”
“How have you gotten this far without figuring out that part?” She shook her head. “You really should have shown up at a staff party earlier. I might have gone home with you sooner.”
“Hey!”
She laughed again. “Well, I think it’s about time for lunch, don’t you?”
We went back forward towards the cafeteria but, as we got close, I saw Dr. Stepherson leaving. Abandoning Atiya, I ran towards him.
“Dr. Stepherson? Can I talk to you?”
He turned to me and audibly sighed. “What is you want, Dr… Ferris is it?”
“Yes, thank you. I’m trying to get to know the rest of you on the expedition. I’d like to talk to you about your research.”
He shook his head. “No. You are on this expedition with the rest of us because the powers that be back in Arkham decided that they wanted you here instead of a real scientist. Now, if you will excuse me?” He turned and hurried towards the crew quarters.
I stood there in surprise for a few moments, then turned around. Atiya was still standing there, a frown on her face, but she shrugged.
“I told you he wasn’t happy with you.”
“So I’ve been told.” I looked after him, then shrugged. “Well, he’ll have to let us know what he is working on at some point. Lunch?” I pointed towards the cafeteria.
We went inside, but it was a bit crowded. Finally, I saw a pair of empty places near where Darrin was sitting. He and Reiko had helped me this morning with the samples, but I hadn’t seen him much since coming on board. Atiya and I sat down with me next to him and her across.
“So, how’s it going?” I asked, unwrapping my sandwich. It was supposed to be roast beef, but I was pretty sure it was turkey. At least, based on what it looked like, I hoped it was turkey.
He seemed vaguely irritated at us sitting with him. “OK, fine. I guess.” He glanced around, and I saw him look a bit longer at where Reiko and Donnie were sitting.
I decided that was something I didn’t need to get involved in. “Have you met Dr. Parimala?” I asked, popping open my beer. “She’s our resident physicist for the next few months.”
He half waved in acknowledgment. “Yeah, hey. Good to meet you.” He abruptly slid his chair back. “Sorry, I’m a bit seasick I guess…” He quickly got up and headed for the exit.
I glanced at his plate. He had maybe taken two bites from his sandwich and hadn’t even opened his beer. I took the beer and put it next to mine.
Atiya looked at me. “Well… someone isn’t happy.”
I nodded. “Yeah.” I looked over at Reiko and Donnie, now laughing at a shared joke. “I hadn’t realized that he and Reiko were involved.”
“Do you make it a habit of tracking your student’s relationship status?”
“What? No. Just you think I would have picked up on it, given how much we work together.”
“Yeah, I get that. Well, maybe he hoped something would change on this trip and thought he had a chance he didn’t.”
“Maybe…” I took a bite out of my sandwich–it was apparently turkey after all–and chewed as I thought.
“It’ll be fine. I’ll talk to him later. I need the two of them working together if we’re going to get anything useful out of this trip. I can’t have a ‘might have been’ interfering.”
She laughed. “Hey, I know how these trips go. There will be two or three swaps before we get back to Arkham. And one or two broken hearts too. They’re here to learn, and not everything is on the curriculum.”
I heard an echo of something I had thought the other day. “Yeah, I get that too.” I glanced back at Reiko and Donnie again. He now had his hand on hers and was talking to her intently. I shrugged. It wasn’t any of my business.
—
We chatted a bit more then left; we both had things to check in on. I needed to take the minisub out on a shakedown but wanted to make sure it was good to go before finding a location and asking Captain Anderson to go there.
I started to head for the sub, then decided to go look for Darrin first. I found him up near the bow.
“Got time to help me check out the sub?” I said as I came up.
He kept looking at the ocean for a few moments before turning to me. “Yeah, sure.” We headed back towards the sub.
He was still silent as we opened the hatch and climbed in. It was crowded, very crowded, but he took the aft seat while I took the forward and we started running diagnostic routines.
For a while, we did nothing but check the equipment and found nothing wrong. Eventually, I leaned under the console, found the cold specimen storage area, and pulled out a pair of beers.
“Looks like we’re good!” I said, handing one to him. “Everything OK?”
He frowned but took the beer. “Yeah, fine. Why?”
“You just seem… distracted, is all.”
He took a drink. “Thanks, Dr. Ferris, but I’m fine. I appreciate the concern, though.”
“Well… If you decide you want to talk to someone…” I banged one of the few exposed patches of the hull. “This thing is a pretty good place for a private conversation.”
“Yeah. Well, I guess I need to get back to my notes. Thanks for the beer.” He crawled over and up the ladder.
I watched him go and sat there for a while, finishing my beer. It really wasn’t my business, but I kinda felt responsible for my team. Nothing I could do, though.
—
Later, I made my way up to the bridge looking for Captain Anderson. He wasn’t there, but surprisingly I found Dr. Stepherson. He was talking to the crewman on duty, whose name I had forgotten, and was trying to get him to increase our speed.
“I’m sorry, doctor,” he was saying. “But we are at our standard cruising speed, and I cannot exceed that without direct instructions from Captain Anderson.”
“You don’t understand!” Dr. Stepherson was saying. “It is vitally important that we get to Paloma as soon as possible.”
“What’s the rush?” I asked, walking up.
Dr. Stepherson turned to me in anger. “Oh! It’s our biologist. Well, Doctor… Ferrous is it? Well, your fish will still be there whenever you want to go see them, but I am facing a deadline. If we do not get to this island on schedule, we will have to wait another month for another chance!”
“It’s ‘Ferris,'” I said, frowning. “And what is this deadline we are facing?”
He sighed. “It has nothing to do with your research, but I am hoping to see a… festival. A native event that only occurs at certain times of the month. Which is why I wish Dr. McNamara were with us since as an astronomer he could possibly have helped me correlate the festival with a specific astronomical event. But then he was dropped, and we had to delay our departure to allow you to come on board.” He sighed, almost shaking with anger and frustration. “I must get there in time to see this festival. I must!”
“Well, it sounds like you need to take your concerns to Captain Anderson then,” I said, more diplomatically than I felt. “But I’m intrigued, what is this festival you want to study?”
“It’s a…” he stopped, eyes narrowing. “Ah, I see. You’re trying to get me to tell you something for that blotter of yours. Well, I’m not giving my secrets away. You can find out when I make my presentation, just like everyone else. Now, if you will excuse me, Doctor, Mr. Harris.” He turned and stalked out the door.
I watched him go, then turned back to the crewman. “Sorry about that, Mr… Harris?”
He nodded and stuck out a hand. “Yes, Crewman Harris. Chris Harris. Call me, Chris. It’s all right; I think all of us have had a run-in with Dr. Stepherson by now. And you’re Dr. Ferris, right? I remember you from the departure party.”
“Yeah, I think I remember seeing you there. Sorry, I’m terrible with names.”
“Well, there’s over 20 staff and crew and maybe a dozen academics. Sorry, researchers. More people to remember. So… were you looking for Captain Anderson too? I think he’s down in engineering.”
“Yeah, I was, but I was wanting to see if we could make a slight detour and delay. It sounds like I may hit some resistance there though.”
He shrugged. “Well… we do have some flexibility. And the way you ask may help.”
“Thanks. It isn’t that urgent, though; I was just hoping to give the minisub a test dive.”
He nodded. “Good idea. I saw a couple of those when I was in the Navy. I understand they’re a bit temperamental.”
“Yeah, they are.” I paused. “You were in the Navy?”
He nodded. “Yeah, for a while anyway. Was a pilot there too. Same as Sara. Sara Dornbrook, she’s our other pilot. Actually, over half of the crew are veterans from one branch or the other.”
“Oh? I didn’t know that.”
“The University seems to prefer hiring veterans for the crews on these ships. I think it’s part of the same deal they have with the government that gets them the ships in the first place. Get the ships, but they have to provide some jobs for ex-servicemen and women too. Makes sense, I suppose.”
I nodded. “I guess. Hadn’t realized it though. Well, I’ll let you get back to what you were doing.”
He laughed. “I’m staring at open ocean and making sure the auto-nav doesn’t get too confused. Not particularly difficult.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Hey, it’s better than the Navy where I had a dozen people up here with me watching me watching the auto-nav. It’s quiet. That’s good.”
“Got it,” I said, heading for the exit. “Talk to you later then.”
“I’ll be here.”
—
I went down to my cabin, edited this together then… saw Dr. Pickman’s comment on my post from yesterday.
Serious Dr. Pickman, what is going on? What do you know about this ship and the people on it? How did you know about…?
OK, fine. Yeah, Atiya and I spent the night together last night. Why is that important, and how is that you apparently knew about it? I hadn’t posted because, well… she said it didn’t matter, but she is married, you know. “What happens at sea,” and all that and… Well, we are going to be out here for a long time with just us.
But you think this is important, somehow? Fine. There’s the ‘secret’ you wanted. Now, how about you telling me your secret? Fair trade, OK?