We’re still in the Gulf though we’re apparently pretty close. Captain Anderson has said that he’s slowed us down so that we don’t get to the Canal too much before our entry time. Apparently, you have to sign up for slots in advance and if you show up at the wrong time you have to wait.
I can see what looks like a freighter ahead of us and on the same course, so they must be planning on going through the Canal as well. There’s a ship of some kind behind us too, but I can’t tell what it is; I can just see their lights. I suppose I could track down some binoculars and look, or probably just ask the crew, but it isn’t that important.
I tried to talk to Dr. Stepherson again, but he still claims not to have time for an interview. I have no idea what he is working on; as an anthropologist, he shouldn’t have anything to do until we get to the islands he is wanting to visit while Dr. Parimala and I can start working as soon as we clear the Canal. I don’t know what is keeping him so busy.
I think he just doesn’t want to talk to me.
I did finally talk to Donnie. He was sitting up near the bow, apparently not having had any luck with Sara. He was quite willing to speak, especially when I brought him a beer from my private stock. (Hey, that space in the mini-sub was just going unused otherwise.)
“Dr. Stepherson doesn’t particularly like having you here,” he said, twisting off the top and tossing the cap overboard. I frowned at that but didn’t say anything.
I twisted off my own cap and stuck it in the pocket of my vest. “Why not?”
He waved me off. “I… I’m not sure.” It didn’t take an expert to tell he was lying.
So I asked him about Sara. “You two friends?”
He snorted. “Hardly.”
“What’s up then?”
“I just figured that with all of us stuck on this boat for the next few months…”
“Stuck?”
“Yeah, not my idea of a good time.”
“Then, why are you here?”
He exhaled loudly. “Seriously? I have to have fieldwork for my doctorate. This gets me all the hours I need in one go. I just want to get it over with.”
“Hey, the best part of science is the fieldwork!”
He laughed. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I’m not a scientist. I’m in linguistics.”
I frowned at that. “Well, linguistics is a science. But… aren’t you on Dr. Stepherson’s team?”
“Yeah, but I’m on loan from the Languages department. Dr. Stepherson put in a request for an assistant on this expedition to Languages and Dr. Harper–she’s my advisor–thought I would be a good fit. Not sure why.”
“So… Dr. Stepherson is expecting to need a translator or something? Surely he has people from his own department who can speak Polynesian.”
“Oh yeah, sure. And I don’t; most of my work has been with Asian languages. But he has this book and…”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yeah, sorry…” He looked away. “Don’t tell him I said anything about that.”
“Don’t worry. But it sounds like he’s been reading too many of those bad stories set in our library.”
“Yeah… maybe. Still I… gotta go. Thanks for the beer.” He threw the bottle overboard, prompting another shake of the head from me, then hurried aft.
I looked after him until he disappeared into the crew cabins then turned back to watching the ocean go by. I had read the stories about magic books and monsters that had grown up around Miskatonic for some reason. Hell, they published some of them in the Campus Crier every now and then.
I shrugged. Dr. Stepherson had probably found some old maritime records or something that he thought would lead him to some new discovery. Perhaps in some old version of Chinese or something, which is why he needed Donnie.
I finished my beer, carefully tossed it in the solid waste bin, and headed back to the cafeteria to see if dinner was ready.
—-
The cafeteria was crowded; a lot of the crew had nothing to do while waiting on our entry time. I looked around for my team and finally spotted Patti waving at me from the other side of the room. I grabbed a tray, plopped an obviously microwaved lasagna onto it, and headed over.
“Crowded in here,” I said I as sat down.
“Yeah. Not much else to do while we’re at sea except eat. That’s why the big cruise ships have like 8 meals a day.”
“We’re on a boat full of college students. I’m sure they can find plenty of… other things to do.”
“Just like cruise ships,” she said, laughing.
I shrugged. “Never been on one, actually. I prefer smaller boats.”
“Yeah, I get that. But, in Miami, we saw a lot of them. And they always had last minute deals that were easy to use as a local.” She looked into the distance for a moment, smiling slightly. “Yeah, those were a lot of fun.”
“So, why leave all that behind for Boston? Get tired of warm weather?”
She laughed. “No, that’s why I didn’t leave sooner. There wasn’t much opportunity to move further up at U of M though, so I came up here.”
“After my job?” I asked with a smirk.
“Yes, and you know that,” she replied with a matching smile. “And I figure, after this trip, you’ll probably get moved up to the main campus, and I’ll step into your office.”
“Hey, maybe I like being at the local campus!”
“We’ll see when you actually get the offer.”
I waved a hand in dismissal. “Yeah, like that will happen.”
“You may be surprised.”
Something about her tone struck me; she was suddenly more serious than our conversation had been up until then.
“Wait… have you heard something?”
She gave me an I-know-something-you-don’t look. “Maybe?”
“What?”
“Remember how we got approved for this trip late?”
I nodded. “Yeah, had to scramble to get everything together. Dr. McIntyre suddenly had to drop out for some reason.”
“It was Dr. McNamara, from Astronomy. Solar. And… He didn’t drop out. He was asked to.”
“What? Why?”
“Officially? His research into atmospheric aurora didn’t require him to be on the ship and could be done from any southern hemisphere observation point. They didn’t buy his argument that he needed readings from multiple points.”
“And… unofficially?”
“He really ticked someone off in upper admin, and they chose to shut him down to prove a point.”
I frowned. “Well… bad for him, good for us.”
“And those same people are impressed with you!” She reached across the table and patted my arm. “Come up with something good here, and you’ve got an invite to the downtown campus!”
“And a downtown commute. Ugh.”
She laughed. “And there is suddenly an open position at the Miskatonic campus that might be filled by a dedicated associate professor. One who contributed to the success of the South Pacific research expedition?”
I leaned back. “Oh. So that’s what this is about.”
Her enthusiasm dropped. “Oh come on, Kalen. You know how academia is! Up or out, right? I transferred up to Miskatonic for the opportunities here. OK, I had some problems down in Miami too, but I’ve always been upfront with you. You know that!”
I nodded. “Yeah, you have. And I appreciate it. And I thought it was ‘Publish or Perish’?”
“Same thing. And you should have plenty to publish after this.”
“I hope so.”
“Then it’s all good. Right?”
“I guess?” I paused, thinking. “How do you know all this?”
“Well, if you would spend more time at the college functions instead of being in your lab looking at DNA scans, then maybe people would tell you things too.”
“Hey! They pay me to teach and do research!”
She laughed again. “Well, maybe you won’t be downtown for long.”
“Hey!
She laughed again. Talk turned to our plans for the next few weeks once we got into the Pacific. She reminded me to get my latest set of desired sample locations to Captain Anderson, and I assured her I would.”
When I got up to leave, I looked around and saw Reiko deep in a conversation with Donnie. I frowned, wondering what he was saying about me to her. Or what she was saying about me to him. Finally, I shrugged. Maybe I was getting paranoid.
—-
Now, back in my cabin, I’m pretty sure I’m getting paranoid. I started thinking about Patti’s revelation that Dr. McNamara had been kicked off the expedition to let me get on, then about how Dr. Pickman had insisted that I do these blog posts at the last moment. Individually either of the two would be odd, but two odd things together?
No one on this ship can see this, so I’ll ask anyone else. Does something seem wrong to you? I’m on the Arkham now; we aren’t planning on landfall again until we reach the island that Dr. Stepherson is wanting to visit. We’ll make several stops to allow me to take samples or for Dr. Parimala to drop off her buoys, but we won’t be on land until then.
We’ll be limited to what the communication from the Arkham will allow. Hell, it’s an uninhabited island; we’ll still be limited to the Arkham‘s systems then.
Except for this laptop.
Dr. Pickman, what did you know? What is this? I… kinda need to know. What is going on?